In April of the second year of Baoyuan, the news of Li Yuanhao's defeat had already spread throughout the world.
The Liao Kingdom was also speechless.
They also wanted to use Li Yuanhao's invasion to threaten and blackmail the State of Song and increase the annual tribute that the State of Song had to pay them.
As a result, Li Yuanhao was so weak that he thought he had a strong army and took the initiative to attack the Song territory, but was beaten and fled in panic. He was truly the worst of his brothers.
The Song Dynasty sent a reply to the Liao Dynasty. The implicit sarcasm in the letter made Liao Xingzong Yelü Zongzhen very unhappy, but the strength displayed by the Song army also made the Liao Dynasty wary, so the matter could only be left unresolved.
After helping Li Yuanhao stabilize the situation and formulating a new strategic plan, Zhang Yuan was ready to set out in March towards the Liao Kingdom.
It's just that the distance between the two sides is too far.
Where was the capital of Liao?
In Balinzuoqi County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia in later generations.
The capital of Western Xia was Yinchuan City in Ningxia.
The two places are more than 1,600 kilometers apart.
In addition, Zhang Yuan's delegation had to bring gifts and had many carriages and horses, so the movement was slow and it was estimated that it would take more than a month to arrive.
However, Yelu Zongzhen had already learned that Western Xia had sent an envoy delegation, and he was also very interested in why Western Xia, with an army of more than 100,000, was defeated so quickly in the northwest of Song.
Did the Song Dynasty become stronger, or was the Western Xia still as weak as before?
At the time when Li Yuanhao was forming alliances and begging for mercy from the Song Dynasty, he was secretly colluding with the Liao Kingdom and preparing to attack the Song Dynasty together with the Liao Kingdom.
In April, Zhao Jun inspected Sichuan and went north to Shaanxi.
At this time, more than a month had passed since the Song-Xia War. Zhao Jun met Pang Ji in Chang'an, inspected the agricultural construction in Guanzhong, and affirmed his diligent governance in the rear.
The prototype of Master Pang in "Young Justice Bao" has obviously been stigmatized. In fact, he is not only an outstanding official, but also an honest and upright official.
After Fan Zhongyan was transferred back to the capital, Pang Ji, as his successor, continued to use Di Qing and repaired and governed the border, making the border defense strong. This prevented Li Yuanhao from continuing to attack and ultimately facilitated the Qingli Peace Talks.
To some extent, this person is indeed an excellent governance talent.
Zhao Jun saw that during his two years in Guanzhong, he had managed the vast Guanzhong Plain in an orderly manner, repaired water conservancy facilities everywhere, restored agriculture that had been over-cultivated in the Tang Dynasty, and even planted trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Wei River.
Although this was a policy that Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi had already implemented, in reality, the local government had long been slack in planting trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Wei River. It was obvious that he took on this responsibility for long-term considerations.
Although Guanzhong today is not as prosperous as recorded in the history of the Tang Dynasty, it is a stable region with restored agricultural production, which makes Zhao Jun feel very satisfied.
After praising Pang Ji's abilities, Zhao Jun headed north to Yanzhou.
Yan'an Prefecture was also a place he had always wanted to visit. He wanted to see the cave dwellings here and see the traces left before the great men of later generations came here.
But unfortunately he was disappointed.
Only when we arrived in Yanzhou did we realize that this was actually a valley. Looking around, we saw mountains surrounding us, all of which were hilly slopes that were tens of meters high, and at most less than one or two hundred meters.
Although it was the end of April and the mountains were covered with lush green, one could still vaguely see the desolation of the Loess Plateau, as well as its vastness and silence.
Yanzhou City is located at the foot of the mountain. To the west of the city flows the Yan River. In the small valley to the east lies a small city covering an area of four or five square kilometers.
Zhao Jun entered Yanzhou City under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan. The two men exchanged greetings for a while and then entered the city.
Then, with the introduction of Lao Fan, I met Liu Ping, Ren Fu, Shi Yuansun, Wang Zhongbao, Xu Huaide, Zhang Kang and others.
After that, there is a welcoming party.
As the saying goes, if you win, smile happily, if you lose, say MMP.
Because they had won the battle, everyone was chatting and laughing at the dinner table.
At the dinner table, Zhao Jun pointed out that the Xixia people were ambitious and Li Yuanhao had not changed his bad habits. Even if they won a great victory in this battle, they still couldn't be careless. They still had to take necessary precautions and never underestimate the enemy.
He emphasized that offense is the best defense, and if there is a chance to send troops outside the Great Wall and severely damage Western Xia, we must not miss the opportunity to strike hard when the enemy is down.
As the saying goes, "It is better to use the remaining courage to pursue the enemy than to seek fame by imitating the tyrant." The soldiers of the Song Dynasty must have the spirit of not fearing sacrifice and daring to explore.
As long as they are not afraid of difficulties, dare to fight, and are determined to fight tough battles, the court will not be stingy with food and money.
Everyone was very happy to hear these encouraging words.
In addition to praising the Dean's good writing skills, they also praised the Dean for his foresight and for giving them such constructive suggestions.
Everyone was talking nicely to each other, praising each other, eating as much as they could and drinking as much as they could, and then they left the party in high spirits.
In fact, everyone knows that Zhao Jun is just speaking for show.
But the sentence at the end that the court will not be stingy with food and money is a real benefit.
Moreover, Zhao Jun also made a promise that the court would reward generously any soldiers who made meritorious contributions in this battle.
In this age where money is everything, nothing is more motivating than giving out money.
Although Zhang Kang had made many military achievements in history, he was repeatedly impeached and suppressed, and was even imprisoned for a time. He was also criticized in his later years, and his official career was bumpy. He failed to achieve success until his death.
The reason was that in order to reward his subordinates and motivate their fighting spirit, he tried many ways to make money, such as using public funds to send his subordinates to Chengdu to do business, and colluding with merchants entering China and France by falsely estimating salt permits to embezzle the court's assets.
But everything he did was for his soldiers. Later, the court found out that he had no intention of seeking personal gain and distributed all the money he earned to his subordinates.
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