Xiao Wulila was silent for a moment before he responded, "Who wouldn't want to? But we are blessed by our ancestors to be able to march this far. If we force our way to Xijing, if something goes wrong, all our previous efforts will be wasted."
Zhao Jiu turned his head and glanced at Lu Benzhong with a smile: "I told you, Dashi Linya is a great hero and won't let me worry about messy things."
Without talking about military matters, Lu Benzhong reacted very quickly and immediately twirled his beard and nodded.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your understanding." Xiao Worila breathed a sigh of relief and responded quickly. He seemed to be somewhat disappointed that he could not march into Xijing, and was about to leave.
"No problem." Zhao Jiu nodded in response, and then, just as Xiao Wulila turned his horse around, he suddenly spoke again. "General Xiao just called Dashilinya the king?"
Xiao Wulila's face slightly changed, but he did not dare to hesitate, and immediately turned around and said: "That's right... Before the expedition to Hexi, your majesty sent an envoy to tell us about the death of the late emperor. In order to gather people's hearts, my king offered sacrifices to heaven and earth and temporarily called himself Khan."
"Oh!" Zhao Jiu responded by looking up as the horse was shaken, looking as if he was thinking about something.
Xiao Worila was in a state of anxiety and followed for a long time. Seeing that Zhao Jiu had no intention of continuing to speak, he suppressed his complicated emotions and returned to the Khitan army.
Just like that, without further ado, a few days later, the coalition forces advanced eastward in a big way, and the Jurchens, as Yelu Dashi had predicted, retreated to Xijing (Datong) in one breath after realizing that they could not fight against the coalition forces in the narrow passage between the Yin Mountains and the Yellow River.
In this regard, Yelu Dashi, Yue Fei, Wu Jie and others all came to the same conclusion that the Jurchens did this on purpose to lure the coalition forces to continue their pursuit. Once the coalition forces fell into the trap and crossed Yunnei Prefecture and lost the protection of Yinshan Mountain, they would most likely be surrounded by the Jurchens.
These people made their judgment. Zhao Jiu would certainly not go beyond the line and directly ordered the army to advance to Yunnei Prefecture and Dongsheng Prefecture. However, the main force of the army was not allowed to cross the Jin River that flows through Yunnei, Dongsheng and other places.
However, even so, as the army continued to leave Yinshan, and the main force of the Jurchens withdrew to Datong Prefecture, the entire Hewai and Hedong were also shaken. Especially in the Hewai area where the Jurchen forces could no longer reach, the Zhe clan, who had long sent a large army to secretly cooperate with the Song army, openly changed sides. Fengzhou, Fuzhou, and Linzhou directly hung up the banner of the Song Dynasty; Heqing Army, Jinsu Army, and Ningbianzhou, three prefectures that originally belonged to the old territory of the Liao Dynasty, also had Khitan remnants and rose up to respond, but were directly attacked by the Zhe clan's troops who were anxious to make merit; as for the defenders of Yunnei Prefecture and Dongsheng Prefecture, the so-called Yunnei Jiedushi Yelu Nuoge, who was supposed to face the army directly, did not wait for the army to arrive and directly turned against them.
At this time, as the traffic at the vertical bend of the Yellow River was opened up, Zhao Jiu learned that as early as late May when he marched to Hetao, Wanyan Huonu and Wanyan Salihe had taken the initiative to cross the Yellow River and return to Hedong. Han Shizhong officially recovered Yan'an, Suide and Jinning at the end of May, and led his army northward in response.
By the second day of June, thanks to the strong suppression of Zhao Jiu and Yelu Dashi, the coalition forces stopped at Jinhe Lake, where the Jin River and the Yellow River meet under the jurisdiction of Dongsheng Prefecture, and ultimately did not cross the Yinshan safety zone.
By this point, everyone knew that after nearly half a year of chaos in the northwest caused by Yelu Yudu's escape, it was time to put an end to it with this victorious and successful march.
In fact, seeing that the coalition forces were no longer moving forward and both the Jurchens and the coalition forces were unable to hold on any longer, they quickly tacitly and tentatively disbanded and separated small groups of troops to ease the logistical pressure.
But at the same time, as the saying goes, military matters should be military matters and politics should be politics. After the military victory, before the troops are disbanded, some things should be done, especially these are high-end matters that only he, the official of the Song Dynasty, can do.
The sixth day of the sixth lunar month was the date appointed by Emperor Zhao for the Song-Liao-Mongol alliance, which was to be held at the Jinhe Lake between the Yin Mountains and the Yellow River. According to the agreement, the three parties would offer sacrifices to heaven and earth here, and then, under the witness of an army of 200,000, they would establish a formal, all-round anti-Jin alliance, including military, economic, and diplomatic aspects.
On the morning of that day, before the noon sacrificial ceremony officially began, Yelu Dashi, Hebule, Huerzahusi, Bilege and others arrived at the Song army camp on the banks of the Jinhe Lake together... They had to come, because Emperor Zhao arranged this date too urgently, and some sensitive matters had to be communicated before the alliance was signed. Otherwise, what would happen if Emperor Zhao, who led the alliance, forced his way in?
Break the contract?
In the camp where the Song army had an absolute advantage? In front of the Jurchen army, which was only a hundred or two hundred miles away and was still eyeing them covetously?
"Dashilinya wants all the prefectures and counties north of the Yellow River?" Zhao Jiu, who was sitting at the main seat in the hastily prepared banquet on the bank of the Jinhe River in the warm weather, asked with a smile. "In addition, he also wants the three prefectures of Heqing, Jinsu, and Ningbian?"
"Your Majesty, what you said is interesting." Yelu Dashi, who was sitting in the first seat on the left, raised his cup and responded. "North of the Yellow River is only the three states of Tiandejun, Yunneizhou, and Dongshengzhou, the former territories of Houtao and the Liao Dynasty. How come Your Majesty is talking about something extraordinary? And Heqing, Jinsu, and Ningbian are also the former territories of the Liao Dynasty. Therefore, what I said just now is nothing more than wanting to take over Hetao. Or is it that Your Majesty, although you have an alliance with us Khitans, is preparing to swallow up the former territories of the Liao Dynasty?"
After saying this, Yelu Dashi, who came alone in a clean cloth robe, took a drink from the cup and then laughed.
Although similar topics were anticipated at the table, the atmosphere was still a little tense after Yelu Dashi spoke directly to the point, especially when the other party laughed wildly after questioning, which immediately made a group of arrogant soldiers on Zhao Jiu's right unable to hold back.
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