Unfortunately, due to Zhang Kang's upright character, he offended Shangguan Zheng Jian and Xia Song many times, and was retaliated by them. The censors of the Censorate impeached him for using public funds for business and falsely accused him of seeking personal gain for themselves, which led to Zhang Kang being transferred away from the northwest.
So to some extent, Zhao Jun's promise to reward the army was more important than his promise to promote these generals.
When the food and money arrived, Yuan Hao was defeated.
They need to pay money to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.
Now Zhao Jun has promised a reward.
Everyone was happy.
After pacifying the soldiers, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan finally had the opportunity to chat alone in the evening.
In the back office of the provincial government, one can see the towering hills by looking up. Two people are walking in the backyard.
"I haven't seen you for over two years. You've really aged a lot, Old Fan."
Zhao Jun laughed.
"This place in the Northwest is really tough."
Fan Zhongyan glanced at the white spots on Zhao Jun's temples and frowned, "Why are your hair white?"
"I do have some gray hair. My dad also had gray hair at a young age, but it wasn't as serious. It's probably due to genetics, but it's just this time."
Zhao Jun sighed, "I knew from history books that the people of the Song Dynasty suffered, but I didn't expect it to be even worse than I imagined. Have you ever seen a family where, when several brothers go out, who wears the only pair of pants in the house?"
"Yes."
Fan Zhongyan said expressionlessly, "I have seen as much as you have."
"Okay, I'm sorry for showing off my skills."
Zhao Jun shrugged.
"How is it? What do you feel?"
"I wrote a lot of things, I'll leave them for you to read later."
"Um."
Fan Zhongyan nodded, then said, "Yuan Hao wrote to me a few days ago, saying he wanted to surrender."
"Do you believe it?"
Zhao Jun asked back.
"If he really wanted to surrender, he wouldn't just say it in a letter."
Fan Zhongyan is not stupid.
Surrender should also look like surrender.
His father Li Deming was a role model. He not only often sent envoys with gifts to Bianliang, but also went to Yanzhou in person many times to communicate with the officials of the Song Dynasty at that time, to engage in mutual trade and discuss border security issues between the two countries.
It was precisely because of this sincerity that moved Song Zhenzong, so Song Zhenzong gave Li Deming many rewards in return and gave him official positions and titles, laying the foundation for the friendship between Song and Xia.
As a result, during the Li Yuanhao era, he not only became enemies with the Song Dynasty, but also took the initiative to attack the Song Dynasty.
Now that we are defeated, we should submit a petition for surrender.
Isn’t this a joke?
If he was truly sincere, he should have sent gifts to Bianliang and personally come to Yanzhou to apologize. This would be much better than writing two hypocritical letters of surrender.
"If it's fake, and he's just trying to delay, then guess what he wants to do?"
Zhao Jun asked.
"Do we still need to guess?"
Fan Zhongyan scoffed and said, "It's obvious with just a toe that he went to the Liao Kingdom."
"Learn how I talk, huh?"
Zhao Jun rolled his eyes.
Fan Zhongyan smiled and said, "It's quite interesting."
"I'm glad you know."
Zhao Jun said, "The Liao Kingdom never actually went to war with the Song Kingdom in history, but the appearance of hand grenades would definitely make the Liao Kingdom feel threatened. If the Liao Kingdom couldn't threaten the Song Dynasty with force, would it still be the Liao Kingdom? Therefore, Emperor Xingzong of Liao is likely to actually fight."
"The situation has changed, and there's nothing we can do."
"But we can't give them the opportunity to attack from both sides. Although grenades can change the situation on the battlefield, being caught in a two-front war at the same time is too disadvantageous for the Song Dynasty."
"you mean?"
Fan Zhongyan thought for a moment, then looked towards the north and said, "Should we cripple the Western Xia first?"
"good."
Zhao Jun nodded. "Even if we can't destroy the Western Xia, we must at least ensure that they no longer have the ability to invade the Song Dynasty. After we've dealt with the Liao Kingdom, we can slowly deal with Li Yuanhao."
"Destroying the country is fine, but if Xixia is destroyed, the Liao army will come directly from Xiazhou, which will be disadvantageous to us."
Fan Zhongyan shook his head.
Although he also wanted to destroy Western Xia, from an overall strategic perspective, it was not appropriate to go to war with the Liao Kingdom.
The Song Dynasty was plagued by internal and external troubles, and its internal contradictions had become extremely acute. If it continued to fight the Liao Kingdom, its finances would be tight, and it would have to impose additional taxes, which would inevitably cause domestic unrest and frequent uprisings among the people.
If Western Xia existed, the Liao army would not attack from Western Xia. Li Yuanhao was indeed hostile to the Song, but he was also worried that the Liao would use it as a pretext to attack Guo and swallow him up as well, so he would never allow the Liao army to enter Xia territory.
So what were the areas bordering the Liao and Song dynasties at that time?
One is Hebei and the other is Shanxi.
The area north of Yanmen Pass in Shanxi is currently the territory of the Liao people, and the two sides are confronting each other in Yanmen Pass, Hequ County and other places.
The Liao army was in Shuozhou, while the Song army was in Daizhou and Lanzhou.
The two sides are basically separated by Luliang Mountain and Hengshan Mountain.
The Liao Kingdom almost never attacked the Song Dynasty from Shanxi, except that it was blocked by the Luliang Mountains to the west, the Hengshan Mountains in the middle, and the Taihang Mountains to the east, which was not conducive to cavalry attacks.
The most important are several military towns including the Huoshan Army, Baode Army, Kelan Army, Ninghua Army, Jinning Army, and Pingding Army, with more than 100,000 troops.
As the Liao cavalry found it difficult to break through the mountains, and the Song army had so many troops relying on the favorable terrain to block them, they naturally could not pose any threat to Shanxi.
Therefore, the Liao Kingdom could only advance from Hebei every time, where the terrain was flat and more suitable for cavalry to gallop.
But it would be different if Western Xia was destroyed.
The Liao cavalry was able to attack the Loess Plateau from the Xiazhou grassland. Although there were mountains on the Loess Plateau, they were all small hills and could not stop the cavalry's attack.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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