The envoys of the Liao Kingdom left, but the Emperor and ministers of the Song Dynasty in the Chuigong Hall felt uncomfortable as if they had eaten a fly.

They were threatened.

If you want to be angry, of course, you are angry in front of the Liao people, but you dare not feel depressed.

Is it great to have cavalry?

There were also many in the Song Dynasty back then.

If the trade in Xitang and Tubo was not cut off and Xiliang was robbed by Xixia, the Song Dynasty would not be short of war horses and would not be afraid of fighting with the Liao Kingdom. However, now, the stock of war horses in the Song Dynasty was not large. Once the Liao Kingdom crossed the border, the city of the Song Dynasty might be fine, but the villages outside the city would be in trouble.

When starting a war, especially when starting a war against an enemy who restrains oneself, the pressure it will bear is always unimaginable to ordinary people.

Zhao Xu looked at Zhang Dun with a pale face and said with difficulty: "Zhang Xiang, what do you mean?"

Zhang Dun's bad temper had long been aroused, but he also thought of the asymmetry of the strength of the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom. Unlike the Western Xia, if the Liao Kingdom went south, it would be easy to reach the heartland of the Central Plains. The economic damage to the Song Dynasty was an unprecedented disaster. If he, as the prime minister, insisted on going to war, the losses of the Song Dynasty were so huge that everyone could not bear. The Song Dynasty was not afraid of fighting with the Western Xia, and Guanzhong would have long been no longer prosperous during the previous dynasty. However, the places attacked by the Liao people were the most prosperous areas of the Song Dynasty. Such losses could easily lead to the complete collapse of the Song Dynasty. Finally, after all, he might become the Chao Cuo in history, the kind of unlucky person who was sacrificed to the flag.

His face turned red and white, and finally he sighed: "Your Majesty, I think it's not appropriate to make too many enemies."

When Zhao Xu heard Zhang Dun's reply, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was so angry that he was rationally told him that going to war with Liao Kingdom would not only be of no benefit, but would also put the Song Dynasty in a huge dilemma.

Even his father dared not think so.

"Where are all my dear friends?"

The emperor could not listen to Zhang Dun's one-sided words. Those who are emperors need a bowl of water and Duanping. This is the case in the harem and the court should be like this. Of course, Zhao Xu's small body, if he wants a bowl of water and calm in the harem, he will never expect in his life. Among the 100 concubines he married at the age of ten, it is almost ten years now, and many of them are virgins. It is not that he doesn't want it, but that his body does not allow it! But in the court, he still has this kind of aura.

Cai Bian felt that Zhang Dun had not finished speaking, and seemed to have something to say, but he was worried too much. Who made him the follower of Zhang Dun? The boss didn't finish speaking, I added.

He cleared his throat and said his opinion very rarely: "I think the Liao Kingdom threatened our Song Dynasty with cavalry. Although there was no sign of war, our Song Dynasty must be guarded. Our energy was focused on the Western Xia and had no time to take care of the threat of the Liao Kingdom. But our imperial guards in the two routes of Hebei cannot do anything."

"What are your plans?"

"Dig a trenches!" Cai Bian said: "The cavalry needs an open plain, and our Song Dynasty does not have a good defense method. However, digging a trenches can hinder the cavalry's actions, and at the same time it can also build water conservancy, killing two birds with one stone. The Liao Kingdom must see that we are prepared and dare not act rashly. Only after our Song Dynasty wins the decisive victory against the Western Xia can we prepare for the Liao matter."

"Can taxes not be able to support it?" Li Qingchen was worried that Cai Bian's actions would reduce the Ministry of Revenue's expenditure on the northwest, which cast a faint feeling for the Northwest War, which already had the advantage.

Zhang Dun said angrily: "It won't be short of your Privy Council's money."

Faced with the threat of force from the Liao Kingdom, the emperor and his ministers could not discuss a secret solution. Especially when facing 100,000 or even more cavalry going south, it was even more difficult. The Song Dynasty was not afraid of the invasion of the Western Xia, mainly the Western Xia went south to the Guanzhong Plain of the Song Dynasty, with hundreds of miles of mountains in the middle. No matter how many people in the Western Xia were, it was difficult to break through the defense areas of Huanqing Road and Fuyan Road. Even if the Western Xia attacked the Guanzhong Plain, it was still difficult to enter the Central Plains. If Hangu Pass could not pass, everything was a fantasy. But the Liao Kingdom was different. Once Baoding Prefecture was destroyed, Daming Prefecture, one of the four capitals, was exposed to the cavalry of the Liao Kingdom.

If Daming Prefecture is broken, the Yellow River defense line is unstable, and Bianliang is also exposed to the attack of the Liao cavalry.

If the capital was threatened, the Song Dynasty would be in the middle of the night.

When Zhenzong was almost defeated by the Liao army, he had to order a decisive battle with the Liao Kingdom in Chanzhou. The decisive battle in the plains was conceivable for the difficulty of the entire infantry of the Song army. In addition to the restless Western Xia, Zhao Xu felt that when he was in power, he was determined to dream of the emperor of the ages, there were signs of premature death.

Will it be effective to use war to threaten the Song Dynasty?

Many times there will be.

Xixia showed signs of independence during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, and the Song Dynasty had long been unable to command Xixia. However, Emperor Zhenzong was cheated by his ministers and died. Which dynasty did ministers deceive the emperor into fighting on the front line?

There were no other dynasties, but it appeared in the Song Dynasty.

Zhenzong didn't want to follow the footsteps of the Battle of Chanyuan again and be deceived by the ministers again. Besides, Xixia is not Hedong and Hebei, and its importance to the Song Dynasty cannot be compared. If you don't listen to the imperial orders, you don't listen. Zhenzong felt that it was nothing. The most important thing was that he was a dignified emperor, who was deceived by the ministers and took charge, but he had not won in the end. This hurts his self-esteem.

If the Song Dynasty did not win against Xixia, the emperor should have issued an edict.

To any emperor, bowing his head and admitting his mistake is a shame that he will never be able to cleanse in his life.

It was not until the rebellion of Emperor Renzong that Li Yuanhao began, the Song Dynasty's court suddenly discovered that Western Xia had become a confidant of the Song Dynasty. However, after several major defeats, even Renzong lost confidence. Especially the lack of taxes made the emperor and ministers very nervous.

When Renzong suddenly discovered that the imperial court's annual expenditure exceeded the taxes at the highest level, it reached two million guan. At that time, there was at least 50 million guan in the Renzong treasury. But the imperial family could not eat the food for the first time, right?

In fact, two million guan was not worth mentioning for the fiscal revenue of 60 to 70 million in the Song Dynasty at that time. In the ordinary years, only a few hundred thousand guan were.

At this moment, it was like a catastrophe that made him unable to sit still. It was also the inducement of the Qingli New Policy. The accumulated problems such as redundant officials, redundant soldiers, redundant fees, etc. are all fake. If it were other dynasties, taxes could be solved. And in terms of the gap, not much was missing. Adjusting the salt and iron tax could be completely solved. However, in the Song Dynasty, neither the emperor nor the officials had thought about this problem. This is the necessary condition for the implementation of the reform.

Renzong never thought about adding fu.

Shenzong never thought about adding fu.

After Zhao Xu took power, he never thought about increasing taxes. Although the taxes in the Song Dynasty have been setting new highs year by year, the main reason is that there is a large population and 30 million more people, it is strange that the taxes are not large.

As for the big gap between the rich and the poor in the Song Dynasty, the gap between the people in the city and the people who work in the farm made the bottom of society extremely unstable. But this is a nonsense. The gap between the rich and the poor in the Song Dynasty was large, but the big reason was not the regional problem, but the occupational problem. The farmers who farmed had little income, mainly because the Song Dynasty regulated the food prices too strictly.

The Song Dynasty's stable grain prices had reached the peak of the feudal dynasty, and it could even be said to be crazy. Since its founding, the recorded grain prices have been maintained between 200 and 300 pm. The salt price has been reduced from more than 150 pm in the Tang Dynasty to the best sea salt at 45 pm. Such a price is for farmers who have only more than 2 pm per mu, especially those tenants who have no land and rented seeds, and they have worked hard for a year and they have no money left. But it is not reasonable to say that they can't even eat. The Song Dynasty has many rebellions, and many rebel leaders have very impure purposes. They are trying their best to wait for the court to recruit peace and become officials.

The huge gap between the urban population and the rural population is the rich and the poor, which is the dilemma of the Song Dynasty.

Especially the urban population can easily earn twice the income of farmers, but the tax revenue is much lower than that of farmers. This led to the extremely developed handicraft industry in the Song Dynasty, and a large number of farmers with skilled skills abandoned their land and entered the city to live. This is probably the biggest dilemma of the Song Dynasty. Especially the urban population, they can be slaves to the rich, and even young girls can be maids and concubines for the rich. Don’t think that being a concubine in an official family is inferior, and the concubine also needs to sign a contract. After two years, they can leave the house to get married.

Moreover, young women who have been concubines for officials are very popular in the marriage leave market. Because these women have seen the rules of noble families, they are shortcuts to pass on their families and improve the tutoring of ordinary people.

To solve the gap between agricultural population and urban population and abolish and lift the agricultural tax, this is impossible for any feudal dynasty.

Can't the emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty see the predicament?

No, they can see it, not only see it, but also think of possible solutions.

The reason why Zhao Xu wanted to fight Xixia was to solve the dilemma and resolve external threats, and continue to implement reforms to ease social conflicts.

But war is not that easy.

Xixia did not fall down, and Liao Kingdom jumped out again.

This made Zhao Xu and his ministers very worried. The Liao Kingdom was much more difficult than the Western Xia. The Song Dynasty suffered repeated setbacks in dealing with the Western Xia, not to mention that there was a sudden addition to the Liao Kingdom.

After a long discussion, the monarch and ministers thought of a response, which was not a response. However, whether it was the emperor or the court, they needed to be urgently aware of the current situation of Xixia. As for Weizhou, Hongzhou, Longzhou and Yinzhou that were eaten by the Song Dynasty, they could not spit out anything they said.

As a last resort, Zhang Dun finally put his hope on Li Kui. Perhaps the situation in Xixia was worse than they thought?

Zhang Dun immediately suggested: "Officials, the Song Dynasty must send an envoy into Xixia as soon as possible. If necessary, go to Fuyan Road and Huanqing Road, and immediately ask Fan Chunren and Zhang Qi to send troops to escort them."

"The list of missions?" Zhao Xu hesitated.

Zhang Dun insisted: "Didn't you formulate a copy? If Li Kui supports Li Bingqian's rebellion in Xixia successfully, this is the best time to redefine the territory with Xixia. Once you miss it, variables may appear."

As soon as he opened his words, An Tao, the second-in-commander of the Privy Council, could only express his opinion. He bowed to Zhao Xu and said, "Officials, ministers will live up to the expectations of the public and bring the four states into the Song Dynasty."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Zhao Xu was a little relieved, and the ministers rarely united. It seemed that the Liao Dynasty's mission was not useless, and sometimes it could bring some benefits to the Song Dynasty. He continued: "Then what should the Liao Dynasty's envoys handle it?"

The army was approaching the border, which was not good news for the envoys of the Liao Kingdom.

Two days later.

An Tao stared at the Liao delegation vigilantly. The Liao people didn't know how to convince Zhang Dun, and they just wanted to follow him to Xixia. The purpose must be that the people came were not good, and they wanted to destroy the fruits of victory in the Xixia. However, after waiting for a long time, Yelu Baoji, the young prince with the highest status among the Liao people, had no intention of getting on the car and rushing to travel, which made An Tao feel a little worse for this person.

The little prince Yelu Baoji looked up at the towering city walls of Bianliang and said sadly: "This has been a long time, and it must be a good time and a good scene..." After saying that, he sighed sadly.

An Tao had a bad impression of the little prince Yelu Baoji. He threatened the Emperor of Song and the court a few days ago, and then followed him stubbornly.

Nowadays, there are people who pretend to read Liu Yong's "Yu Linling" and are another obscene embryo who is obsessed with Liu Yong. Fortunately, this person is from Liao, and An Tao's self-comfortable thoughts.

An Tao's very decent person was also confused by Yelu Baoji's play. Was this person who came to the capital of the Song Dynasty as an envoy? Or was he here to play?

As soon as he set out, An Tao understood that this guy was here to play, and before he could have fun, he was destroyed by the emperor of the Liao Kingdom.

"How can Cailou be compared with Qingfenglou? Master An said, Xiao Wang dare not agree. How dare Cailou's singer be compared with Qingfenglou? It's a big difference, the lyrics are even more cliché, and the appearance is much worse..."

The little prince Yelu Baoji was very wise, obviously he was a veteran of this kind. The restaurants in the Song Dynasty also had guest rooms, which was very evident. Moreover, in the restaurants in the Song Dynasty, customers could add any service as long as they could pay until the guests were satisfied. An Tao's face was full of black lines. He even thought that the Khitan nobles in front of him, who had a smell of beef and mutton smell all over his body, didn't know how many women in the Song Dynasty were disgusted with.

But An Tao could not have an attack when he was lying on the Liao mission, so he had to contempt in his heart, but said calmly on his face: "The little prince is so elegant."

Yelu Baoji sighed and said, "Xiao Wang has only gold and silver, but not talented, which is quite regretful. Xiao Wang has been obsessed with the beautiful branch for a long time, but unfortunately the beauty has not even been seen without the best lyrics and music. I wonder if... Xiao Wang is lucky!"

With this obscene look, An Tao almost turned his back on his anger. He was also a Jinshi and was young. Although his talent and knowledge were not as good as Li Qingchen and Su Che, he was also quite talented. Poetry, songs and essays are no problem, but the problem is that he was a great minister of the Song Dynasty. He could betray his talent for Yelu Baoji, a slutty prostitute, and write poetry and essays?

If his juniors dared to say this, he would have slapped his mouth long ago.

Don’t look at who you are, the barbarians of the Liao Kingdom, and I am worthy of letting him bow down?

Seeing that An Tao's face was not good, Yelu Baoji shut up and said it was a pity. It seemed that in order to make no words, he said to himself: "Xiao Wang has also asked friends for help. Unfortunately, the poems written by the students of the Imperial Academy made the top student Qiaozhier girl in the Jiaofang quite disdainful, and Xiao Wang was also helpless."

"In fact, Xiao Wang just wanted to learn how to write poems and essays with Lord An, so he thought that if Lord An had an old manuscript, he would let Xiao Wang copy and learn it."

An Tao's lips opened slightly, and he was quite disdainful. I had used this trick when I was young. Can I get this trick?

Who has never loved a young and beautiful woman?

But don’t even think about helping foreign races. Mr. An is also a kind person.

When you get older, your waist is no longer good, and your body is useless, you will understand how ridiculous the indulgence was when you were young. An Tao hurried to Huanzhou Prefecture under the harassment of the little prince. After passing the clearance, Zhang Shi escorted An Tao to Weizhou. After leaving Weizhou, he was in Xixia.

"Houqing, I won't give you this to you, take care of me!"

"It is entirely up to my husband and brother to fight for the country, so I, An Tao, have the opportunity to enter Xingqing Prefecture." An Tao sighed.

If he said this on another occasion, Zhang Qing would have suffered. But even he won a little blushing in this battle. The Xixia army retreated, but he was not driven out, so he retreated for no reason. He did not conquer Weizhou, and Renduo Baozhong surrendered and offered him. When he just learned about Li Kui's situation in Xixia, even Zhang Qing blushed and said to An Tao with a blushing face: "This brother is not afraid to be greedy for me. Houqing will know when he goes to Xingqing Mansion."

When asked, Zhang Feng kept silent.

This surprised An Tao. With doubts in his heart, he urged the guards to rush their way as soon as possible.

Two days later, he entered Pingxi Prefecture. Seeing the city gate in front of him, the brigade of cavalry suddenly came out of the city gate. An Tao was so scared that he almost rolled down in the car: "I won't follow Su Wu's footsteps, right?" In an anxious manner, An Tao shouted: "The two armies are fighting, and there is no injury to the envoy."

But in his sight, he found that a general in the leader jumped off his horse after approaching the convoy, speaking awkward Chinese, knelt down to An Tao's car, shouting: "Little Guhar, please welcome Master An under the order of my commander!"

An Tao was stunned. He felt embarrassed by the tricks of being tricked by the people of Xixia. At the same time, he couldn't figure out that this guy was not pretended to be a spy from the Imperial City Department, right?

Are you not afraid of being killed by Dangxiang people after being exposed?

Fortunately, An Tao was a high-ranking official of the Song Dynasty after all. Although he was frightened, he quickly stabilized his mind and his momentum rose sharply. He looked down at Guhar who was kneeling on the ground and asked, "Why didn't Li Kui come to welcome me?"

The coquettishness on Guhar's face suddenly dissipated, and he stood up angrily and said to An Tao: "Let my general greet him personally, are you worthy?"

An Tao was almost angry and almost fell backwards and died on the edge of the wheel of the car.
Chapter completed!