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

By May, Yelu Zongzhen finally couldn't hold back and chose to negotiate with the Song Dynasty.

It wasn't that he didn't want to fight, but reality dealt him a heavy blow.

Of the 34 tribes of the Liao Dynasty, only a few were willing to help. Even in the northwest, Hou Naiman rebelled, killed the Liao messenger, and established himself as king.

And according to rumors from the rear, some tribes were also ready to move, such as the Wugu tribe, the Huangshiwei tribe, and the big and small Huangshiwei tribes, which had been in rebellion for many years.

These tribes were originally conquered by several generations of wise rulers, such as Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji, Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang, and Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu, who fought one after another and continued to attack and slowly pacified them.

The pacification only proved that they had surrendered, but it did not mean that they had been integrated into the Liao Dynasty and completely became part of the Liao people.

They surrendered to the Liao Dynasty because of its abundant military power, and naturally they would become disloyal because of the decline of the Liao Dynasty, especially after seeing the Liao Dynasty's disastrous defeat in its southward expedition to the Song Dynasty.

So Zhao Jun's prediction was correct. If Yelu Zongzhen fully recruited soldiers from all tribes, there would be only one outcome - all the generals would revolt.

If the Song Dynasty interfered at this time, such as sending money, food, weapons and equipment to the Jurchens, Bohai and Xi tribes in the northeast through the Bohai Bay, inviting them to attack the Liao Dynasty together, and severely dealing a fatal blow to the Liao Dynasty, I am afraid that the country would be destroyed.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Yelu Zongzhen finally decided to accept Zhang Jian's persuasion and agree to all the requirements put forward by the Song Dynasty.

But they also had their own conditions.

First, they could exchange war horses and minerals with the Song Dynasty for money and food, but hoped that it would still be an annual tribute in name to save Yelu Zongzhen's face. And it would be the same every year in the future, exchanging nominal annual tribute for equivalent items.

Second, since the Song Dynasty hoped that the two countries would treat each other equally, it should not require that only the Liao Dynasty open up the sale of contraband, and the Song Dynasty should do the same, otherwise it would be unfair.

Third, it was required that the land on the south bank of the Laishui River was not ceded by the Liao Dynasty, but given by the Liao Dynasty.

After receiving Zhang Jian's letter, Fan Zhongyan was overjoyed to see that Liao agreed. He hurriedly sent someone to send the letter to Bianliang.

At this time, Kaifeng was still in a very solemn atmosphere.

This situation has lasted for two or three months.

Ever since their chief minister said passionately that he would fight the enemy to the death, the enthusiasm of the people in the city gradually faded.

After all, the first thing to do in war mobilization is to continue collecting food and grass, and then send it to the front line.

In this war atmosphere where food and grass are sent before troops move, the price of grain in Bianliang is rising day by day, making the people miserable.

This cannot be changed by any tough measures. There must be corresponding production capacity supply.

Otherwise, how can you bring down the price of grain without food?

So the people of Bianliang also complained, and they had to continue to spend money to import sulfur from Japan, which made the treasury spend money like water, and the officials began to be unhappy.

In addition, they had to work at full capacity to make grenades and cannons. In the case of a lack of copper, copper cannons were safer than iron cannons. Zhao Jun believed that they could first make copper cannons, accumulate experience, and then start making iron cannons.

But a copper cannon costs about 2,000 kilograms of copper.

Based on the weight of four to five Song kilograms of a string of coins, it would take about 400 to 500 strings of coins. With labor, shells, etc., the total cost must be more than 500 strings.

In the Ming Dynasty, the cost of the same iron cannon of more than 2,000 kilograms only cost 200 taels of silver.

This must be a burden on the finances.

However, Zhao Jun believed that saving 300,000 strings of annual tribute and making 600 copper cannons would be much better than paying annual tribute to the Liao Kingdom every year?

Therefore, he resolutely expressed strong support for the increasingly high military expenditure.

But this persistence may not last too long.

Again, the same sentence.

Now the people can barely appease the people's grievances by relying on Zhao Jun's own prestige and the constant propaganda of newspapers.

In the officialdom, Zhao Zhen and the Political System Institute supported the government, and the Political System Institute supported a large number of idle officials to come to power and gathered a group of interest groups, so that the officials could not make trouble.

But if this continues, even those who love the country will be in a dilemma or even resent the court in the face of the rising daily necessities.

So in a sense, the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty are both holding on, and it's just a matter of who will be the first to break down.

But one good thing is that they have been preparing for the Song-Xia War and the possible Song-Liao War for nearly three years, so they can still hold on.

Although the price increase is serious, it is at most the highest point of the increase in grain prices caused by the war with Xixia during the Qingli Year in history.

On the other hand, the Liao Dynasty is in danger of extinction, so Zhao Jun keeps boosting morale and asking everyone to persevere.

In the Chongzheng Hall.

Zhao Jun is telling everyone a story.

"According to our scouts, Liao will definitely be the final loser. Now the Bohai people in Bohai, the Jurchen tribe of the Five Kingdoms, and the Jurchen tribe of Donghai have expressed goodwill to us, saying that as long as we support them, they will never follow Liao to the south."

"This fully illustrates the sayings that those who are in the right will have many friends and those who are in the wrong will have few friends, and those who have many enemies will have few friends."

"Then why is Liao still holding on?"

"I think there are two reasons. First, they still can't let go of their former status as the boss of East Asia and don't want us to be on an equal footing with them. This will seriously affect the dignity of their Liao, which claims to be the most powerful country in the world and is visited by all nations."

"The second is that they are reluctant to part with the hundreds of thousands of coins they get in vain every year. In addition, on the birthdays of the Emperor and the Queen Mother of Liao, we all have to give gifts. Those are all wasted money."

"There is a story in our later generations. The story says that there was a beggar on the overpass. A gentleman passed by every day and saw that the beggar was pitiful, so he gave the beggar one yuan. On this day, the gentleman was in a hurry and forgot to give the beggar money when he passed by. He left Afterwards, the beggar spat on his back."

"For some time, my husband was on a business trip and was not in this city. When he returned to this city, he passed the overpass again and saw a beggar. He walked up and gave the beggar one yuan. The beggar said, you should give me thirty yuan." The husband asked , Why? The beggar said, you haven’t been here for a month, so you should give me thirty yuan.”

"After some time, the husband passed by the overpass and did not give the beggar any money. The beggar stopped him and asked why you didn't give me the money. The husband said that I was married and had children, and the money was given to my wife. The beggar said angrily: You actually Give the money you gave me to your wife.”

“What can we see through this story?”

Zhao Jun looked around at everyone.

Zhao Zhen in the Chongzheng Hall was the first to raise his hand and speak: "Does this refer to the common saying that rice favors are promoted and rice is hated?"

"good."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "For the Liao Kingdom, he is like a poor beggar. If you give him the coins for a long time, he will think that the coins should be his. But he forgot that this was the stupidity of the Emperor of Song. The benefits brought to them, once the emperor stops being stupid and becomes smart and stops giving them money, they will think that we have annexed the money that belongs to them, and they will resent us. "

"Grandson."

Zhao Zhen glanced at Zhao Jun resentfully. Although he seemed to praise himself for being smart, he seemed to scold his father for being stupid, making him not sure whether he should be happy or angry.

"Oh, I'm just used to being in front of my own people. I will definitely be cautious about my words and actions in front of outsiders. Don't worry, brother."

Zhao Jun waved his hands and said: "Who in the Song Dynasty doesn't know that today's elder brother is wise. Although the late emperor is a little weaker, the one who gave birth to such a wise and powerful brother will be comparable to the Han Wu and Tang Sect in the future, and may even be more powerful than them. , Doesn’t that prove that the late emperor was weak, but his genes were still good?”

"All right."

Zhao Zhen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although he should be happy because he was about to become an emperor in Zhao Jun's mouth, he felt something was wrong when he heard it, which really made him unhappy.

"Then what if they keep insisting on the Sui coins?"

Lu Yijian asked.

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Then beat them to let them go. Now the Liao Kingdom is already unstable internally, and clues have emerged. If Yelu Zong is really stupid enough to want to subjugate the country, then let's fight him! As long as we are the one who wins in the end, With the power of Liao destroyed, even if the domestic turmoil is extremely chaotic, it can barely survive, and in the end it will just be reborn from the ruins. "

"A lot of people will die that way."

Wang Zeng sighed.

"Who wants so many people to die? But again, I don't want Song and Liao to start a full-scale war now and put our people in dire straits. But if the Liao Kingdom forces us, we can only take action and have to take action. ”

Zhao Jun also sighed and looked out the window.

Everyone's face was solemn.

No one really wants war.

Although there was a fight, they all believed that Song Guo had a very high chance of winning, at least 70%.

The problem is that even so, it is two tigers fighting, one will die and the other will be injured.

If the Liao Kingdom was destroyed, the Song Dynasty would not feel better either.

So everyone in this room, including Zhao Jun, hopes for peace.

But the great man once said, "We love peace, but if we seek peace through struggle, we will survive in peace, and if we seek peace through compromise, we will perish in peace!"

This is a wise saying. Zhao Jun keeps it in mind and dare not forget it!

"Dong dong dong!"

At this moment, there were three clear sounds outside the door.

This is Wang Shouzhong's knock on the door.

Zhao Zhen said quickly: "Come in!"

He knew that Wang Shouzhong always followed the rules, and if he could knock on the door while he was talking to everyone in the Constitutional Yuan, there must be something important.

Wang Shouzhong came in, bowed to everyone first, and then said: "The official family, I hope Duke Wen will send you an urgent letter six hundred miles away."

"oh?"

Zhao Zhen said hurriedly: "Send it up."

Wang Shouzhong handed Zazi over. Zhao Zhen glanced at it after taking it, with a look of joy on his face: "The Liao people agreed."

"What? They agreed?"

"This, this, this!"

"That's great, they actually agreed."

Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Song Shou, Cai Qi, Sheng Du, Yan Shu and others all looked in disbelief.

Although they were all smart and wise men of the Song Dynasty, being able to achieve such a victory was simply something they could not even dream of.

After all, the Liao Kingdom has been a mountain pressing on their heads for a long time.

One day they discovered that the mountain was so short that it was eye level with them, which naturally made them feel incredible.

Only Zhao Jun looked wise and smiling.

In fact, although he looked calm on the outside, he was also quite panicked in his heart.

Although I am sure that the Liao Kingdom will most likely agree, what if there are no smart people in the Liao Kingdom and they are all warriors with brains and muscles, and they would rather suffer internal collapse than lose both sides?

So now seeing that the Liao Kingdom finally made the wisest decision, Zhao Jun was secretly relieved and sighed in his heart that there were still wise men in the Liao Kingdom.

"only."

After Zhao Zhen read Zha Zi, he pondered for a while and said hesitantly: "They still have a few conditions."

"What conditions?"

Zhao Jun asked.

Zhao Zhen explained several requests made by the Liao Kingdom, and finally asked: "Dasun, can you agree to it?"

Everyone looked at Zhao Jun. After all, everyone knew that Zhao Jun was the one who made the decision.

"able!"

Zhao Jun nodded seriously.

"Great, what a great victory!"

"This peace negotiation will probably go down in history."

"In my lifetime, it is really sad to see that the Liao Kingdom will be in decline."

Several old men in their sixties or seventies were in tears.

They actually experienced the humiliation of the Chanyuan Alliance when they were young, and they also knew how bossy the Liao people were.

Now, such a great diplomatic victory has been achieved, which made everyone burst into tears.

However, Zhao Jun unexpectedly said in a deep voice: "Don't be too happy yet. We can agree to these conditions, but there is a problem with the first one."

"Dasun, be content."

Zhao Zhen knew that this was referring to the fact that the nominal annual tribute was an insult to the country, so he advised: "It's good that they are willing to give something in exchange."

"No, I still have to mention two points. First, the Chanyuan Alliance used to accept it, but now it doesn't work, so it will be given as a gift!"

Zhao Jun said: "Second, even if it is a gift, it is not easy to get this reputation. You have to spend money to buy it. So give us 350,000 guan for something originally worth 300,000 guan. Fifty thousand guan will buy it in the name of , Let’s take a small loss, but it’s not too much.”

"Can they agree?"

Lu Yijian advised: "Hanlong, just accept it as soon as you see fit. Don't cause any more trouble in the hard-won peace talks now."

"Yeah, that's it."

Yan Shu also advised.

"What are you afraid of? Since they have agreed to peace talks, it means that the matter has been finalized and cannot be changed."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "Besides, doesn't this indirectly mean that the Liao Kingdom can no longer withstand it? They won't care about this trivial matter. At most, they will publicize it as "Na" or "Na" after returning to China. "We don't respond. In China, we just say that the annual currency is cancelled. It doesn't matter what Yelu Zongzhen says in the Liao Kingdom, we only want benefits!"

In fact, this is still a question of national character. A single word difference makes a world of difference.

"Xian" is a word for offering. Historically, when the Liao Dynasty increased the number of coins during the Chongxi period, the Liao Dynasty requested "Xian". It was Fu Bi's strong request that changed the word "Xian" to "gift".

"Na" is a neutral word, meaning to pay and contribute, but also to hand over and pay. The Chanyuan Alliance could barely treat them as equals, so it was accepted at the time.

But no matter what, although it is a neutral word, the meaning of the word is not particularly obvious, and it is still suspected of being a condescension.

Giving away is different.

Giving equally, even a bit of charity.

Therefore, in order not to lose face, the Liao Kingdom claimed that the land on the south bank of Laishui that Fan Zhongyan had conquered was not considered a cession, but a gift.

Obviously, Zhao Jun was a little dissatisfied with Liao's insistence on saving face even after losing.

But it’s okay to save face.

Take money to buy.

They themselves would keep silent about it anyway.

In this way, the Liao Kingdom gained face, and the Song Kingdom gained dignity. It was like Qin Shihuang playing clones - a win-win situation.

"Well, maybe that's true."

Yan Shu suddenly felt puzzled and said: "But why did the Liao Kingdom insist on letting go of forbidden objects? We didn't allow books to flow into the Liao Kingdom before. Aren't they afraid of being invaded by culture?"

Now they also know what cultural invasion is.

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "I know better than you. Is this what makes me smart?"

"Why?"

Everyone was puzzled.

Zhao Jun said: "It's very simple. There are many Han people in the Liao Kingdom, and they claim to be the supreme state of the Celestial Dynasty, which is the orthodoxy of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, they also respect Confucian culture and welcome Confucian classics. As for copper, saltpeter, sulfur and other forbidden substances , do you think they need it?”

"firearm!"

Everyone looked at each other and spoke in unison, suddenly understanding.

The Liao Kingdom obviously had Xiang Zhuang's sword dance with Peigong in mind, and was eyeing the Song Dynasty's firearms.

If you know you can't beat it, you have to do research.

And research requires raw materials.

Although the Northeast is rich in natural resources, there are very few saltpeter and sulfur mines, and even if they do exist, they are mostly buried underground.

The Central Plains region is different. In ancient China, saltpeter mines were produced in the northwest region. There is a saying that "saltpeter came out of Longdao and sulfur came out of Hanzhong."

But that was recorded in "Fan Zi Ji Ran" during the Spring and Autumn Period. More than a thousand years away from the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the sulfur minerals in Hanzhong gradually dried up, and a large amount of them needed to be imported from Japan.

The output of saltpeter has not decreased, because there are many production areas. In addition to Gansu in the northwest, Sichuan, Shandong and Shanxi are all famous saltpeter-producing areas in ancient times, and the storage capacity is still very large.

In addition, although the Liao Kingdom had trade and commerce, it was completely incomparable to the Song Dynasty in terms of scale and influence.

At least the Liao Kingdom had established a reluctant tribute system with Japan at most. Japan had paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom, but only once in a while. The two sides had almost no economic or military exchanges.

Therefore, this led to the fact that the Liao Kingdom did not possess the two raw materials of gunpowder, saltpeter and sulfur, and naturally there was no way to conduct research on gunpowder.

It would be different if contraband was opened.

The Liao State was able to purchase large quantities of sulfur and saltpeter for experiments, thereby conducting research on firearms.

Hearing Zhao Jun's analysis, Wang Zeng frowned and said, "Then we can't agree to this request. If the Liao Kingdom develops gunpowder, wouldn't our advantage be wiped out?"

"No, sell to them! Not only sell, but sell hard. The more you sell, the more you make!"

Zhao Jun said with a smile.

Everyone was shocked.

Lu Yijian said sadly: "You fool, Hanlong, how can you sell such a thing to Liao?"

“I know it’s a strategic resource, but have you ever heard of first-mover advantage?”

Zhao Jun asked.

"never heard of that."

Everyone shook their heads.

“First-mover advantage refers to the lasting competitive advantage brought by leading technologies and products!”

Zhao Jun analyzed: "Gunpowder has been invented since the Tang Dynasty, but why have I only come up with pure granular black powder today? This is a technical reason, unless Zeng Gongliang and I are the only ones in the Firearms Department who know the secret recipe. Otherwise, the Liao Kingdom would not have been able to overcome such a huge technical barrier and complete the gunpowder upgrade in just a few years.”

"Well"

Zhao Zhen thought it made sense, nodded and said, "Then do we have to strictly control Zeng Gongliang and that stall owner?"

"That's not the case. The two of them are now living in the Firearms Department, surrounded by troops and tightly defended. Besides a few of us, no one knows that they know the secret recipe of gunpowder. I have given them a death order and are not allowed to spread it. Even letting people know that they knew the secret recipe of gunpowder was subject to a hush-hush order.”

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The Firearms Department should be safe and sound. Even if the Liao people sneak in secretly and capture a few craftsmen, they can't get them out, because each of these craftsmen knows different processes, even if they have gathered all the processes. The craftsmen don’t even know the sequence and proportions, so what can they use to study them?”

"That's good."

Everyone felt relieved, as long as the Liao people couldn't get the gunpowder formula.

But the next second, everyone became concerned again.

Because Zhao Jun said: "Sell the raw materials first, and wait until they can't produce them. In a few years, we will sell the complete firearm formula to the Liao Kingdom."

"Even the firearm formula was sold to the Liao Kingdom?"

Everyone looked at each other.

Zhao Jun explained: "We still have the first-mover advantage. In a few years, we will be able to find a way to carry out a small-scale industrial revolution first, explore better steel, and manufacture better artillery, guns and ammunition. Then the gunpowder will be sold to In the Liao Kingdom, they are still at a disadvantage with firearms, and it will be difficult to catch up with us! "

The biggest advantage of the Song Dynasty is that Zhao Jun knows the future development, so unless there is a prophet in the Liao Kingdom, the Song Dynasty will always be slower in research and development. Then why couldn't the Song Dynasty sell its backward technology to the Liao Kingdom? Not only can you make a lot of money, but you can also sell various materials.

For example, saltpeter and sulfur were imported from Japan and resold to the Liao Kingdom. When firearms develop better in the future, not to mention the raw materials and gunpowder will be sold to each other, it will be the same situation as the first-mover countries and the late-mover disadvantaged countries in later generations.

By then, the Liao Kingdom would be tightly controlled, and it would be nothing more than a raw material exporter at best. When the Song Dynasty became stronger and stronger, it would be easy to destroy and annex the Liao Kingdom with its crushing level of technological advantages.