In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

After Zhao Zhen had a baby, he actually still abstained from sex and maintained a healthy lifestyle.

First, except for Empress Cao and Concubine Zhang, the rest of the harem was under the age of 18.

Even if he wanted to do something, he basically did it for the purpose of not having children, just to meet the needs.

Second, Zhao Zhen was still not satisfied with having only one son.

His father had six children, and although the previous ones died, he wanted to surpass his father and have more healthy babies.

Therefore, he was restrained on weekdays, which was a rare thing for an old pervert like him.

If it weren't for the great cause of passing on the family line, he would have let himself go and participated in the selection of beauties everywhere.

But now the inventory in Zhao Jun's computer has obviously opened the door to a new world for him, and he is deeply attracted.

Don't think that being an emperor in ancient times is very happy, it depends on who is the emperor.

If it were the kind of Emperor Xian of Han or Emperor Yuan of Wei, he would be suppressed and suffocated, just like a bullied young wife.

Although Zhao Zhen didn't reach that point, he was actually not much better.

His wives were basically arranged for him by Empress Dowager Liu, and he had no choice even if he wanted to.

After he took power, he thought he could do whatever he wanted, but the ministers came again.

Others presented him with a few beauties, and the remonstrators wrote to Zhao Zhen one after another, criticizing him and forcing him to send the beauties back.

So Zhao Zhen was actually helpless. He was obviously an old pervert, but he was always uncomfortable and couldn't do what he wanted.

As for aesthetics.

Some people say that the aesthetics of the ancients were very perverted, but in fact Zhao Zhen had only one aesthetic from beginning to end - he liked beautiful people.

The ones Zhao Jun collected were all carefully selected by him. Not only were they high-quality beauties from various production areas, but they were also beautifully made up. This evil magic could instantly turn even ordinary girls into peerless beauties.

Of course, there were makeup techniques in ancient times, but they were definitely not comparable to modern ones. Therefore, in Zhao Zhen's eyes, the beauties in the computer were much more beautiful than the beauties in the harem.

Moreover, the figure was more beautiful than the other, which made Zhao Zhen stunned and crushed his three views, and then he quickly became addicted to it and couldn't extricate himself.

For a while, Zhao Zhen went to the harem to visit the concubines.

And he returned to his old ways and summoned his favorite other beauty Zhang, Yu Yushi and Miao Yushi, and slept with them and did a lot of evil things.

While Zhao Zhen was indulging in women, in the northwest, Fan Zhongyan was fighting with Li Yuanhao.

Old Fan began to prepare troops and food, intending to attack Xingqing Prefecture of Xixia.

On the other hand, he remained calm and seemed to intend to negotiate with Li Yuanhao on the surface, accepting Li Yuanhao's proposal to surrender, but at the same time accused Yuanhao of not being sincere enough in surrendering.

In this world, there is no surrender, no tribute, and self-destruction of the throne.

After receiving Fan Zhongyan's reply, Li Yuanhao was naturally willing to delay the war with the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the two sides kept writing letters and talking about issues such as demotion, tribute, and the status of Song and Xia in the future, and launched fierce negotiations.

From the initial request that the Song Dynasty recognize his emperor status, to the Song Dynasty's firm refusal to allow it, and demanding Yuanhao to restore his grandfather's Xiazhou governor and Dingnan Army Jiedushi, and then compensate the Song Dynasty with 30,000 horses, 10,000 camels, 5,000 cattle, 40,000 sheep, and the rest of gold and silver and Xixia specialties.

Then the Song Dynasty made some concessions and could retain his title of King of Xixia, and demanded 10,000 horses, 5,000 camels, 3,000 cattle, 20,000 sheep, gold and silver and specialties, etc.

Of course, Li Yuanhao didn't do it.

He could accept temporarily demotion to king. After all, in his opinion, as long as the Liao Dynasty was dragged into the water, even if the Shaanxi Road of the Song Dynasty was not broken, it would at least force the Song Dynasty to negotiate and restore his emperor status.

But now, since the trade was cut off, the economy of Xixia is close to collapse and people's livelihood is declining. In history, although Li Yuanhao won three battles in a row, in fact, the internal situation was almost unsustainable.

What's more, it has not won the war yet, but has been defeated miserably.

In this case, if so many things are offered again, I am afraid that there will be no need to fight next time. The domestic economic collapse can cause Xixia to fall into civil strife.

So Li Yuanhao resolutely refused to agree and asked to restore his father's period and only pay tribute to 500 horses and 300 camels.

The Song Dynasty can choose not to reward him, but hopes that the Song Dynasty will not exploit him too much.

Fan Zhongyan also refused.

If it was during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, he might have agreed.

After all, that lord won the war and signed a humiliating treaty to pay tribute to the enemy country every year.

But now it is the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song. Oh, this lord may also agree.

But it doesn't matter. He may not be able to make the decision in the country now. The one who makes the decision is the hard-line Zhiyuan master.

Therefore, with the support of Zhao Jun, Fan Zhongyan boldly asked for a high price, and learned the military deterrence of the Liao Kingdom, threatening that if he did not agree, he would continue to fight until he was beaten to a pulp.

It sounds like their strategic intentions have been exposed, but in fact, Fan Zhongyan also knows that if he does not say so, Li Yuanhao is not a fool.

Since he has won the war, it is the right reaction to start showing off his power. Hiding it will only make the other party suspicious.

So he might as well be more open.

Li Yuanhao's tone softened a lot, but he still disagreed. The two sides kept arguing over the issue of compensation.

By the end of May in the second year of Baoyuan, the Liao Kingdom's envoys had already appeared in Bianliang.

The delegation consisted of Xiao Ying, the envoy of the Southern Court, Liu Liufu, the Hanlin scholar, and others. On the surface, they were here to celebrate Zhao Zhen's birthday, but in fact, they were here to find out the truth.

Zhao Zhen's birthday was on May 30th, and he was 29 years old.

What surprised the ministers was that the emperor seemed to be much lazier recently. Even when he went to court in the morning, he often yawned. Sometimes he simply didn't come to court to discuss matters, saying that he was taking care of the prince.

However, the prince is now the big baby. At least before the second and third princes are born, the eldest prince cannot have any mistakes, so the ministers understand.

Anyway, the political affairs are now coordinated by the Political System Council. Even if he is not the emperor, the government affairs of the country can be handled without any chaos.

After the birthday celebration, the Liao envoy told Zhao Zhen that he heard that the Southern Dynasty had recently developed a new type of firearms and hoped to see it.

Zhao Zhen refused on the grounds that it involved military secrets.

The Liao Kingdom also said that even if it could not see it, it hoped to visit the firearms factory of the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen still refused on the grounds of military secrets.

The Liao envoy was obviously a little angry, saying that if they could not show them the new firearms, they would ask the Song to cede ten counties south of the pass and marry the princess of Song Renzong to the Liao.

Zhao Zhen refused decisively again.

The Liao envoy was shocked and threatened that if the Song did not obey, the Liao would march south in large numbers.

Zhao Zhen said it was up to him.

Seeing that the emperor of the Song seemed to have changed his character and was quite confident, the Liao envoy was a little unsure.

After all, the drill on the parade ground that day shocked the Liao monarch and his ministers.

From the perspective of the country, they certainly hope to resolve the matter peacefully.

After all, if the firearms developed by the Song are really powerful, and the Liao invades south in large numbers, if they have not fought, then the Liao will be in great danger.

At that time, it is possible that the Song will recover Yanyun, or even be driven out of the pass, and can only return to the bitter and cold northeast region.

So if the Liao also has such new weapons, then both sides will be back to the starting point.

Now that the Song Kingdom is unyielding and has a completely tough attitude, it seems that the only way out for the Liao Kingdom is to go to war.

The problem is that war cannot be started at any time.

First, the Liao Kingdom also needs to prepare food and soldiers, and it will definitely take time to make arrangements in advance.

Second, the new firearms of the Song Kingdom still make them feel worried.

At least at present, the Song Kingdom has not threatened to cancel the annual tribute, nor has it said that it will march north to Yanyun, and the two sides still maintain a peaceful situation.

Once the Liao Kingdom takes the lead in tearing up the "Chanyuan Alliance", the Liao Kingdom will be in the wrong, and the Song Kingdom will have an excuse to send troops.

If the Liao Kingdom can withstand the baptism of grenades, it will be fine. If it can't, it will be finished.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Xiao Ying, Liu Liufu and others did not dare to act rashly. In the end, they stayed in Bianliang for more than 20 days and went back in disgrace.

The reason why they stayed in Bianliang was actually to personally command the Liao Kingdom's spies in Bianliang to see if they could find a way to sneak into the Firearms Department to find the formula.

As mentioned before, there were spies in the Song, Liao, and Xixia kingdoms. The Liao kingdom naturally had many spies in the territory of the Song dynasty, and some of them were lurking in Bianliang in various identities.

But unfortunately, Zhao Jun kept the formula of gunpowder very secret. Apart from him, only Zeng Gongliang and the craftsman knew the whole secret formula.

The rest of the people went through the division of labor. Even if the Liao people gathered the craftsmen who were divided into different tasks, they didn't know how to mix them, how to make them, and the order.

Moreover, the Firearms Department is too dangerous now. Because it needs to manufacture new weapons, such as the red-coated cannon based on the tiger squat cannon of the Song Dynasty, and the flintlock rifle based on the musket, it needs a site and an open space.

It is inevitable that there will be problems if you continue to stay in the outer city arsenal, so it has long been transferred to the military camp outside the city.

There are more than 100,000 imperial guards watching there, and there is also a guard every three steps and a sentry every five steps. The craftsmen and their families live in it, forming an internal kingdom, and they are not allowed to enter or leave at all.

In this case, unless the Liao Kingdom sends a large army to besiege.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for ordinary people to sneak in and find the formula of gunpowder.

After working hard for more than half a month and getting nothing, the Liao Kingdom delegation could only return to Zhongjing Dading Prefecture in July.

It was early autumn in the Zhongjing Palace, and the north had not immediately turned cold, and the weather was dry and pleasant.

But Yelu Zongzhen was not in a good mood at this time.

After listening to the stories of Xiao Ying, Liu Liufu and others, Yelu Zongzhen found Zhang Jian, Xiao Xiaomu, Yelu Renxian and other close ministers to ask for countermeasures.

Liu Liufu and Yelu Renxian were the leaders of the younger generation, with outstanding talents, and were highly valued by Yelu Zongzhen.

Xiao Ying, Zhang Jian and Xiao Xiaomu were all important officials of the Liao Kingdom, and they were the Xuanhui Southern Court Envoy, the King of Han and the Northern Court Privy Envoy, respectively, and they were powerful.

Among them, Zhang Jian was very special. He had resigned and retired and did not hold any position.

However, because Emperor Xingzong of Liao respected him very much, in the winter of the sixth year of Chongxi (1037), he named Zhang Jian the King of Han and specially brought him to the capital to ask him about state affairs.

Now that he encountered such an important national event, Emperor Xingzong of Liao naturally wanted to ask Zhang Jian for advice to see if he had any ideas.

In the government affairs hall of the palace, everyone sat down. Yelu Zongzhen explained the situation, then looked at Zhang Jian and said, "Father, the Song State has created such a powerful weapon, which is extremely deadly to the cavalry. What should we do?"

After hearing this, Zhang Jian pondered for a moment. After a while, he shook his head and said, "It's actually not fatal."

"oh?"

Yelu Zongzhen said quickly: "Father, please explain clearly."

"Crossbow!"

"Crossbow?"

"Yes, it's a crossbow!"

Zhang Jian pointed out the key issue and said: "My Majesty said that the object can only be thrown, and the distance it can throw is only more than ten feet, which is much worse than a crossbow. Yuan Hao was defeated because he did not use a crossbow to meet the enemy. , but directly charge into the formation with cavalry, but when encountering Daliao cavalry, this item will be much less useful. "

"Yes."

Yelu Zongzhen slapped his forehead and said, "I was too confused to notice this. Yuan Hao's Xixia cavalry is incompetent, but that doesn't mean that my Daliao cavalry is the same."

In fact, it was not that Li Yuanhao did not want to use crossbows to meet the enemy, but when he hurriedly gathered his troops, the Song Army cavalry had already occupied the surrounding hillside. If they used crossbows and others stood on high places and shot at each other, who would suffer the loss? ?

Anyway, the Song Army's cavalry was on a high slope of a few meters or more than ten meters, and their shooting range was naturally farther than that of the Xixia Army. It is estimated that the Xixia Army's arrows had already been shot into sieves by the Song Army's cavalry before they could reach the target.

So for Li Yuanhao, there was nothing he could do. Taking advantage of the physical disadvantage of the Song Army's cavalry, the correct solution was to rush forward in one wave.

Unfortunately, I encountered a grenade.

But for Yelu Zongzhen, any excuse was just an excuse if he failed, so he naturally felt that it was all Li Yuanhao's fault.

In addition, if you really want to study it carefully, you can still think of using a crossbow to deal with this section.

But at that time, everyone's attention was shocked by the power of this new weapon, but they forgot that the Liao cavalry was not only highly maneuverable, but also very powerful in mounted shooting.

Later generations always thought that the Mongolian cavalry flew kites and was the best in mounted archery. However, in fact, since the invention of the stirrup, this tactic has been basically popularized. Especially during the Liao Dynasty, galloping on horseback while firing a bow was already a characteristic of the Liao Dynasty. Soldiers' daily training.

Decades later, at the end of the Liao Kingdom, the Liao soldiers at that time were basically corrupted and were brutally beaten by the Jurchen tribe. But at least at this time, the Liao Kingdom was still at the end of its peak, and the craftsmanship passed down by the Khitan ancestors had not been lost yet.

Therefore, if they use cavalry and archery, the Liao people are not afraid of the new weapons of the Song Dynasty. When the two sides faced each other, the Liao State could fully utilize the mobility of the cavalry to attack the Song Army's military formation from a very long distance using bows and crossbows.

At that time, even with grenades, there would be nothing they could do against the Liao cavalry.

Thinking of this, Yelu Zong laughed loudly and said: "It seems that I am overly worried. This thing has no threat to Daliao. Then the leader of the Song Dynasty dared to make such a mistake. He did not take me seriously at all and passed on the order. Gather the army, I will go south to attack Song Dynasty soon!"

"His Majesty!"

Zhang Jian smiled bitterly and said: "Although this thing has almost no effect on the Liao cavalry and archery. But with this thing, the Song State is already in an invincible position. It will be difficult to attack the Song State rashly."

"Why?"

Yelvzong is really puzzled.

It was Liu Liufu who explained: "There are many fortresses and cities on the border of the Song Dynasty. These things are really useless in field battles. But in the siege battle, our crossbows not only have a shorter range than the Song Dynasty's crossbows, but they also have to climb the city. If the opponent throws them from high altitude, Get rid of this firearm"

Needless to say what happened next. In field battles, whether the Song State had a cavalry phalanx or an infantry phalanx, even if there were grenades, there would definitely be nothing they could do against the Liao cavalry.

But in a siege battle, other people's crossbows can shoot farther than you. Even if you rush to the city, grenades will hit you. How can you chew a turtle shell?

So the current situation is.

Because of the short range of grenades, the Song State would definitely not be able to take the initiative to attack the Liao State.

But the Liao Kingdom couldn't invade south when they encountered other people's grenades.

So when Yelu Zong heard Liu Liufu's words, he was stunned for a moment.

He found.

It doesn’t matter if you fight, it doesn’t matter if you don’t fight.

I seem to be in a dilemma, riding a tiger with difficulty.