In July of the first year of Baoyuan in the Song Dynasty, in the Helan Mountains, the wilderness was vast amidst the fierce west wind.
The sky is vast, the earth is boundless, and cattle and sheep appear on the grass when the wind blows.
Groups of horses formed neat formations, many Dangxiang chiefs gathered, and the Dangxiang soldiers on horseback stretched as far as the eye could see.
Li Yuanhao on the stage looked down, raised the scimitar in his hand, and spoke passionately about the matter of becoming emperor.
Someone in the audience had a heavy expression on his face, without a trace of joy for Li Yuanhao.
Because apart from him, almost all the Tangut chiefs and generals actually supported him, like a group of brainless ruffians, showing fanatical following.
But who could have known that the economy of Western Xia was now entirely supported by the Song Dynasty. Once the Song and Xia became enemies and trade was cut off, the economic situation of Great Xia would plummet in an instant, leading to very serious consequences.
So as the only sensible person among the crowd, Shan Yu Weiliang hopes to stop Li Yuanhao from becoming emperor.
But obviously this is difficult.
Li Yuanhao was delighted to see that the army's morale was high. He immediately promised that after he became emperor, he would reward many chiefs and generals, and march south to raid the Song Dynasty, stealing food, money, and women from them to reward the three armies.
With such a promise, the many generals below became even more enthusiastic, cheering and shouting for their future emperor, which also made Shan Yu Weiliang's heart sink to the bottom.
Seeing this situation, he finally couldn't help himself. He went up to the stage and knelt on one knee before Li Yuanhao, and earnestly advised: "Your Majesty, this cannot be done. If Your Majesty proclaims himself emperor, it will cause hostility with the Song Dynasty and cut off trade. Daxia will surely fall into hardship. This cannot be allowed."
In fact, any smart person should know that they can't persuade him now. Going up now would be like slapping Li Yuanhao in the face. Even if they want to persuade him, they should do it later.
However, Shan had no choice but to meet Weiliang, because it would be almost impossible to persuade him afterwards.
Li Yuanhao had already wanted to proclaim himself emperor in front of so many people. Even if he succeeded in persuading them, the other party would think that he had called everyone together to proclaim himself emperor the day before and then decided not to do so the next day. This inconsistency was a challenge to his prestige.
Therefore, persuading Li Yuanhao afterwards would be of no avail, and would only force Li Yuanhao to continue his plan to become emperor. By then, when the Song and Xia dynasties became enemies, it would be the Western Xia that would be hurt.
If I go on stage now and state the pros and cons in front of everyone, there might still be room for recovery.
However, Shan Yuweiliang still underestimated Li Yuanhao's determination to become emperor. In response to his persuasion, Li Yuanhao was furious and said, "If they don't come to trade, then we will force them to trade. We will march south and kill and rob them. The Song Dynasty is cowardly, and we Xia people are brave. Are we afraid of them?"
"Your Majesty."
"Okay, I've made up my mind. No need to say anything more."
Li Yuanhao walked away in anger.
Shan Yu Weiliang looked sad. He turned his head to look at the many handsome men below who were looking at him with contempt. He could only leave the stage bitterly.
The Helan Mountains are just outside the city west of Xingqing Prefecture. Li Yuanhao held a meeting there. The Tangut chieftains all brought their men and horses. There were tents everywhere on the vast grassland. After the meeting, there was singing, dancing and feasting.
At the banquet, Shan Yu Weiliang looked depressed and left the venue halfway and returned to his tent. His younger brother Shan Yu Weixu saw that his brother was depressed and came to accompany him.
The two brothers chatted for a while, and Shan Yu Weiliang told his younger brother all his worries. Although Shan Yu Weixu knew that his brother was right, there was nothing he could do. He could only comfort him with a few words and called some of his other powerful friends to hold a small party in private.
Complaints were inevitable at a small banquet like this, and it didn't take long for the complaints to reach Li Yuanhao's ears.
Two days later, Li Yuanhao summoned Shanyu Weixu and told him to expose Shanyu Weiliang's rebellion, otherwise he would exterminate Shanyu's entire clan.
At this juncture, Li Yuanhao still did not dare to kill Shan Yu Weiliang directly because Shan Yu Weiliang was his uncle and an important official in the early Western Xia Dynasty. He served as the military supervisor of the left wing of the Western Xia Dynasty and had assisted his father.
It can be said that Shan Yu Weiliang's status and prestige were still very high. If he was killed without any reason, it would not only cause disunity among the Xixia tribes, but might also cause the Shan Yu tribe to rebel and cause internal turmoil.
Therefore, the best way is to let Shan Yu Weixu falsely accuse Shan Yu Weiliang of treason. In this way, Li Yuanhao can justifiably eliminate Shan Yu Weiliang and solve this worry.
But it was obvious that after a brief struggle, Shan Yu Weixu chose the latter between the tribe and his brother, and secretly sent someone to tell Shan Yu Weiliang the news.
Shan Yu Weiliang was very surprised when he learned about this. He never expected that Li Yuanhao was so cruel that he even wanted to execute his uncle, an old loyal minister who had assisted his father for many years.
Forced into a corner, he had no choice but to secretly escape from Xingqing Prefecture with his wife, children and his entire family of 23 people, fleeing towards the Song Dynasty.
At this moment, in Yanzhou, the seat of Fuyan Road, the newly appointed Yanzhou prefect Guo Quan frowned as he held the letter in his hand. After Shan Yu Weiliang escaped, he had to drag his family with him and could not move so quickly, so he had to let his personal guards ride fast horses to the border between Song and Xia to hand over the letter, hoping that the Song army would come to support him.
But Guo Quan suspected that there was something fishy going on, so he consulted with Li Wei, the governor of Heyang. These two were just nobodies. In history, it was these two who sent Shan Yu Weiliang back, which led to Shan Yu Weiliang's death. The two were also held accountable and were brought down to the root of the problem.
However, there has been a new change now. Fan Zhongyan, the transport envoy of Shaanxi Road, is in the neighboring Linzhou. He had issued a death order before that any problems must be reported to him. The two discussed it and decided not to act on their own, so they sent the news to Luojiao County, the seat of Linzhou, by express horse overnight.
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