"Do I have to continue fighting the Song army?"
Li Yuanhao asked back.
"It all depends on whether Your Majesty still wants to continue building the empire and claiming the title of Emperor!"
Zhang Yuan said.
"Hmm"
Li Yuanhao pondered.
After all, he was a powerful ruler and did not want to continue to be a minister of the Song Dynasty. Now that he had ascended the throne as emperor, who would be willing to give up?
But if he asked for peace because of this disastrous defeat, he would surely be forced by the Song State to demote himself to the position of king, or even not to the position of king, but at most to the position of Jiedushi.
So deep down in his heart, he definitely did not want to surrender to the Song army, and still wanted to retain his position as emperor.
Even if he failed to defeat the Song army and achieve the original strategic goal of capturing Shaanxi Road, he had to at least retain his current title of Emperor of Western Xia.
But when fighting with the Song army, he was frightened by grenades.
That thing is a nightmare for cavalry. The reason why cavalry is so powerful is that when organized cavalry launches a charge, infantry cannot stop it at all, and they can come and go freely and move like the wind.
However, grenades thrown into a group of cavalrymen exploded quickly, making it difficult to avoid them. Even if the explosion didn't kill the cavalrymen, the huge, thunderous sound could easily scare the horses, causing them to run around in panic.
Li Yuanhao said bitterly, "Of course I want to continue to be emperor, but the Song army is too strong, and after they cut off the trade, the people on the border are complaining. If I can't defeat them and force them to reopen the trade, I'm afraid that chaos will break out in Daxia."
"Your Majesty has forgotten that if the Song army becomes stronger, it won't just be us who will be in turmoil."
Zhang Yuan said lightly.
Almost at that moment, Li Yuanhao suddenly opened his eyes wide: "Liao Kingdom!"
With his intelligence, it is impossible for him to think of it so slowly, but he had just suffered a crushing defeat and was so frightened that he forgot this point for a moment.
"good."
Zhang Yuan immediately said, "For years, the Liao Kingdom has used military force to intimidate the Song Dynasty. However, the power of gunpowder is so strong that it can restrain our cavalry as well as the Liao cavalry. Your Majesty, think about it, will the Liao Kingdom be at ease? If we pass this news on to the Liao Kingdom, I'm afraid the Liao King will not be able to sleep peacefully."
Li Yuanhao nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, in the past, the Liao was strong and the Song was weak. The Liao forced the Song to pay tribute every year, and on Empress Dowager Xiao's birthday, the Song had to send a large gift. Now that the Song is strong, the Liao will never accept this."
Zhang Yuan said, "If we can unite with the Liao Kingdom and attack Song from both sides, we might be able to defeat Song and force them to pay tribute to us, and reopen trade with us."
"Um"
Li Yuanhao deeply agreed with this.
Zhang Yuan said: "Even if the Liao Kingdom defeated the Song army in Hebei, the Song army would probably transfer troops from the northwest to Hebei to defend against the Liao Kingdom. The northwest would be completely empty, and we would still have a chance to capture Shaanxi Road."
This is a big pancake.
But now Li Yuanhao is buying into this. Unless he doesn't want to be emperor and doesn't want to continue to show off his power in the northwest, he has no choice but to eat this pie.
As for Li Yuanhao, he was naturally unwilling to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty, so he immediately said, "Yes, quickly, pass on my order to send an envoy to the Liao Kingdom immediately."
After he finished speaking, he suddenly looked at Zhang Yuan and said, "Military Advisor, how about you go?"
He felt that Zhang Yuan was eloquent and would definitely be able to persuade the Liao Kingdom.
Zhang Yuan didn't refuse, but simply said, "I can go as an envoy, but before Liao agrees to send troops, we still have to consider how to deal with Song. If things go as expected, I'm afraid Song might send people or even send troops directly."
"Then I."
Li Yuanhao frowned, then relaxed after a moment and said with a smile, "Then I will surrender first."
Yang Su wondered, "Your Majesty, how can we surrender?"
Yeli Wangrong glanced at him and said, "You fool (Xixia language), your majesty means to stabilize the Song Dynasty by surrendering."
"Your Majesty is wise."
Yang Su clapped his hands quickly.
Li Yuanhao finalized his plan, and his initial fear about the future gradually subsided.
After all, the losses he suffered in this battle were indeed too great.
The total number of troops in the entire Western Xia was only 150,000.
Nearly one-seventh of the troops were lost in one battle, which really hurt Li Yuanhao.
The Dangxiang people were really few in number when one died, unlike the Song people who were numerous.
But just as Zhang Yuan said, there are only two options before him now: one is to surrender, and the other is to continue fighting.
The two sides have already torn their faces apart, and it is impossible for the Song Dynasty to continue to live in peace with him. It is possible that the Song Dynasty will directly send troops to attack him, so he must be prepared.
Unless he no longer wanted to be emperor and wanted to be a military governor appointed by the Song Dynasty, the only way to continue the war was to seek help from the Liao Kingdom.
If it were in the past, the Liao Kingdom might not have attacked the Song Kingdom because of the battle with Western Xia. After all, for the Liao Kingdom, the Song Kingdom had many cities and the fortresses on the border were as numerous as cow hairs, and they were as difficult to chew as a turtle shell.
Anyway, the State of Song would give them annual tribute. There would not be much benefit if they won the war. It would be impossible for them to really go south and destroy the State of Song. If they lost the war, they would even lose the annual tribute. Why bother with it?
But things are different now. The Song Dynasty has developed powerful firearms. If the Liao Dynasty does not take action and waits for the Song Dynasty to hold back for a few more years and continue to develop its technology tree, I am afraid that the Liao Dynasty’s capital will be blown through.
Therefore, Li Yuanhao was confident that he could win over the Liao Kingdom and fight against the Song Dynasty together.
But before the Liao Kingdom agreed to send troops, he still had to pretend to be a grandson. Otherwise, if the Song Dynasty took advantage of the victory and attacked Xingqing Prefecture, wouldn’t he be finished?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
