Everyone looked at Zhao Jun. After all, everyone knew that Zhao Jun was the one who made the decision.
"able!"
Zhao Jun nodded seriously.
"That's great, it's a huge victory!"
"I'm afraid this peace talk will go down in history."
"It is truly moving to see the Liao Kingdom suffer a setback in my lifetime."
Several old men in their sixties and seventies were in tears.
When they were young, they actually experienced the humiliation of the Treaty of Chanyuan, and they also knew how domineering the Liao people were.
Now that such a great diplomatic victory has been achieved, everyone is moved to tears.
However, Zhao Jun unexpectedly said in a deep voice: "Don't be too happy yet. These conditions can be agreed to, but the first one is problematic."
"Grandson, be content."
Zhao Zhen knew that this was referring to the fact that the nominal annual tribute was insulting to the state, so he advised: "It's good that they are willing to exchange things."
"No, I still want to mention two points. First, the Chanyuan Alliance used to be a gift, but now it's not allowed. It has to be a gift!"
Zhao Jun said, "Secondly, even if it's a gift, it's not easy to get this reputation. You have to buy it. So, what's originally worth 300,000 strings of cash? Give us 350,000 strings of cash. 50,000 strings of cash to buy the reputation. We can take a small loss. It's not too much, is it?"
"Will they agree?"
Lü Yijian advised, "Hanlong, quit while you're ahead. Don't mess up the hard-won peace talks."
"Yeah, that's it."
Yan Shu also advised.
"You guys are really, what are you afraid of? Since they have already agreed to the peace talks, it means that this matter is finalized and cannot be changed."
Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Besides, doesn't this indirectly indicate that the Liao Kingdom can no longer hold out? They won't bother with such a small matter. At most, they'll claim it as a 'tribute' or 'offering' upon their return. We won't respond. Back home, we'll simply say that the annual tribute has been cancelled. No matter what Yelu Zongzhen says in Liao, we only want the benefits!"
This is actually a question of national character. The difference of one word makes a world of difference.
"Xian" is a word that means offering something to someone else. In history, when Chongxi increased the currency, Liao Kingdom asked for "Xian". It was Fu Bi's strong request that changed it to "Gong".
The word "納" is a neutral word, which means to pay, to contribute, to hand over, or to pay. The Treaty of Chanyuan was considered equal treatment, so it was "納" at that time.
But no matter what, although it is a neutral word, its meaning is not particularly obvious, and there is still a certain suspicion of being offered as a tribute.
Giving gifts is different.
It is an equal gift, even a bit like charity.
Therefore, in order to avoid losing face, the Liao Kingdom demanded that the land on the south bank of the Lai River conquered by Fan Zhongyan be not ceded but given as a gift.
Obviously, Zhao Jun was not satisfied with the Liao Kingdom's behavior of trying to save face even after losing the battle.
But you can save face.
Buy it with money.
They themselves will keep quiet about it anyway.
In this way, the Liao Kingdom won face and the Song Kingdom gained substance. It was just like Qin Shihuang playing cloning - a win-win situation.
"Well, maybe that's true."
Yan Shu suddenly became puzzled and asked, "Why is the Liao Kingdom so determined to release banned items? We used to not allow books to flow into the Liao Kingdom. Aren't they afraid of cultural invasion?"
Now they also know what cultural invasion is.
Zhao Jun laughed and said, "I know much more clearly than you do. Is that my cleverness?"
"Why?"
Everyone was puzzled.
Zhao Jun said, "It's very simple. The Liao Kingdom also had many Han Chinese, and they claimed to be the Celestial Empire, the orthodox Tang dynasty. Therefore, they also respected Confucian culture and welcomed Confucian classics. As for forbidden items like copper, saltpeter, and sulfur, do you think they needed them?"
"firearm!"
Everyone looked at each other, and in unison, they immediately understood.
The Liao Kingdom was clearly aiming at Pei Gong, as it was targeting the Song Dynasty's firearms.
If you know you can’t win, you have to do research.
And research requires raw materials.
Although the Northeast is rich in resources, there are very few saltpeter and sulfur mines, and even if there are any, they are mostly buried underground.
It is different in the Central Plains. In ancient China, the saltpeter mines were located in the northwest region. There is a saying that "saltpeter comes from Longdao and sulfur comes from Hanzhong."
However, that was recorded in "Fan Zi Ji Ran" during the Spring and Autumn Period, more than a thousand years before the Northern Song Dynasty. The sulfur mines in Hanzhong were gradually exhausted and needed to be imported in large quantities from Japan.
However, the output of saltpeter did not decrease because there were many producing areas. In addition to Gansu in the northwest, Sichuan, Shandong and Shanxi were all famous saltpeter producing areas in ancient times, and the storage capacity was still very large.
In addition, although the Liao Dynasty had trade and commerce, it was no match for the Song Dynasty in terms of scale or influence.
At the very least, the Liao Kingdom established a reluctant tribute system with Japan. Japan paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom, but only occasionally. The two sides had almost no economic, military or other exchanges.
This resulted in the Liao Kingdom not having saltpeter and sulfur, the two raw materials for gunpowder, and naturally had no way to research gunpowder.
It would be different if prohibited items were allowed.
The Liao Dynasty was able to purchase large quantities of sulfur and saltpeter for experiments, thereby conducting research on firearms.
Hearing Zhao Jun's analysis, Wang Zeng frowned and said, "Then we can't agree to this request. If we allow the Liao Kingdom to develop gunpowder, won't our advantage be wiped out?"
"No, sell it to them! Not only sell it, but sell it hard. The more you sell, the more profit you make!"
Zhao Jun said with a smile.
Everyone was shocked.
Lü Yijian was filled with grief and said, "How foolish Hanlong! How could you sell something like this to the Liao Kingdom?"
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