In July of the eighth year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, after inspecting the Yellow River for three months and checking the conditions along the river, Zhao Jun returned to Bianliang City, Kaifeng Prefecture, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

At this time, the world was in turmoil and the situation in East Asia had already undergone earth-shaking changes.

The once most powerful Liao Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. The Liao Emperor Yelü Zongzhen died early. Because his eldest son Yelü Hongji was only fourteen years old, he could only pass the throne to his younger brother Yelü Chongyuan to stabilize the situation.

Although doing so would make his descendants lose the chance to become emperor, Yelu Chongyuan's prestige in the country was much higher than Yelu Hongji's. In order to prevent the country from being destroyed, there was no other way.

After Yelu Chongyuan ascended the throne, he sought peace with the Song Dynasty in the south while reorganizing military affairs and quelling the rebellions that broke out one after another in the country. Basically, the Liao Kingdom went from being the strongest country in East Asia to a second-rate country today overnight.

However, even second-rate countries belong to the second tier.

After the Song Dynasty defeated the Liao Dynasty, its strength basically jumped to that of a top-notch country. The Liao Dynasty was at most a first-class country before, but now it has been beaten back to second-class.

This means that there is no first-class country in the entire East Asian region that can compete with the Song Dynasty, and even the only second-class country is the Liao Dynasty.

The rest of the Western Xia, Dali, Goryeo, Japan, and Vietnam cannot be said to have produced many heroes. They can only be regarded as chickens and clay dogs. It is barely enough to be called a third or fourth-rate force. They are really not worthy of being on the stage.

Among them, the domestic turmoil in Western Xia and Japan was the most serious.

At the beginning of the eighth year of the Qingli period, Japan attempted to recover its domestic mineral resources. After gaining money, it sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to learn about the Song Dynasty's system, technology, and culture in order to improve its national strength.

However, taking back the mineral resources would affect the Song Dynasty's interests, and the Japanese thought that if they complimented the Song Dynasty a few times and saved its face, the Song Dynasty would turn a blind eye.

However, they do not know that the Song Dynasty today is no longer the Celestial Empire that generously gave and supported a group of ungrateful people. Instead, it focuses on the interests of the country and the people and pursues a policy of giving priority to the Song Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, the Song Dynasty court was furious. Although it did not directly send a large army to attack Japan, it sent two naval fleets, totaling 10,000 people, to attack Japan.

The Ninghai army arrived first and defeated the Japanese imperial army. When the news reached Heian-kyo, Emperor Go-Reizei and Fujiwara no Yorimichi were shocked and terrified.

If the Ninghai Army had used cold weapons to fight Fujiwara no Suketsuna's army for a long time before finally defeating Fujiwara no Suketsuna, perhaps they would not have done so. Instead, they might have made up their minds to use the strength of the entire country of Japan to expel the forces of the Song Dynasty.

But the whole process was so weird.

According to the survivors, they were still far away from the Song fleet at that time. They only heard countless terrifying loud noises, followed by hundreds of black iron balls falling from the sky, and then their ship was shattered.

Their fleet was destroyed in an instant from such a long distance. How is this different from the legendary sorcery?

Therefore, under this deterrent, the Japanese court did not dare to take any action.

Amidst this hesitation, even more shocking news arrived. Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, eager to conquer Mutsu Province, led an army to engage the Abe clan. The Abe clan was caught off guard and was severely defeated, and they immediately sought help from the Song army.

The Song army sent a small team of 300 people, led by Abe's men, and in just one round, they defeated Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's army of more than 2,000 with zero casualties.

You should know that in history, Minamoto no Yoriie and his son had extremely high prestige in Mutsu Province. As soon as he came, the Abe clan was intimidated by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's reputation and almost surrendered.

Although the Abe clan defeated Minamoto no Yoriyoshi later, in fact, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi defeated the Abe clan as soon as the two sides fought, and also killed Abe Yoriyoshi. It was not until Minamoto no Yoriyoshi pursued the Abe clan all the way, traveled a long distance on a winter expedition, and was defeated due to lack of supplies.

Therefore, generally speaking, with Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's prestige in Mutsu Province, it was not difficult for him to defeat the Abe clan, especially since they had ambushed the army sent by the Abe clan to support the Mutsu Dynasty some time ago and seized a large number of weapons and armor.

It can be said that at this time Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was consistent with the Abe clan in terms of military strength and equipment. In addition, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's reputation in Mutsu Province, it was only a matter of time before the Abe clan was eliminated.

But the Song army had only 300 people, with zero casualties. The two sides were far apart, and there was another round of huge "bang bang bang" sounds.

According to the survivors, they also saw white smoke rising, and then the warriors of Minamoto no Yoriyama's army who were charging fell one after another, including famous generals such as Saeki Nobutsuke, Fujiwara no Kageki, Waki ​​no Yoshisuke, and Ki Tamekiyo, all of whom died tragically on the spot.

This sudden change made Emperor Go-Reizei, Fujiwara no Yorimichi and others even more frightened. They did not dare to act rashly and even sent envoys hoping to communicate with Ma Mao and others.

However, Ma Mao and his men remained unmoved and insisted on waiting until the order from the Song Dynasty court arrived.

Soon in May, the orders and condemnations from the Song Dynasty court arrived along with the Zhenhai Army. When the news reached Heian-kyo, Emperor Go-Reizei and others had no choice but to obey orders.

They received the envoys from the Song Dynasty with extremely high standards and etiquette, because in addition to the envoys from the Song Dynasty, the navy also sent two thousand guards.

The envoys received by Japan along the way were all terrified, fearing that they would anger the envoy.

Fortunately, the journey was smooth. The imperial edict of the Song Dynasty court scolded the Japanese emperor and put all the blame on Japan's betrayal and failure to fulfill the contract, saying that it was its own fault. The court also forced Japan to sign various treaties.

For example, opening up many ports, allowing Song Dynasty merchants to operate, mine, and contract minerals in Japan, ceding Tsushima Island to Song Dynasty territory, allowing Song Dynasty merchants to invest and set up factories in trading ports, etc.

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