Chapter 353: Ugunai Made a Plan, Liao Invaded Goryeo From the South

In June of the sixth year of the Qingli reign of the Song Dynasty, with the first intelligence being delivered, there was a continuous flow of replies.

Yang Xie, the transport envoy of Qinfeng Road, wrote seven official documents in five days, describing what happened in Qingtang and the deployment of their Qinfeng Road.

Li Yuanhao occupied Qingtang and looted for three days, then went south to Huangzhou and launched a fierce attack on Huangzhou City, which was in danger.

Zuo Silu was seriously injured and had not recovered. Most of his troops were scattered and their morale was low, so they had to retreat to Lanzhou.

Yang Xie sent Jia Kui to lead 5,000 people to Lanzhou first, and discussed with Jingtai, the deputy transport envoy and general manager of the army, and then began to gather troops in this route, ready to enter Lanzhou and fight Li Yuanhao at any time.

This was the power granted to the transport envoy of Qinfeng Road by the court.

The Political System Council also sent a reply to Yang Kai, and then officially appointed Han Qi as the General Manager of Shaanxi Road, Zhang Fangping as the Deputy General Manager of Shaanxi Road, and Zhang Kang as the General Manager of Shaanxi Road.

Before the Qingli Reform, the General Manager was a temporary official position, and was at the same level as the Transport Commissioner, both of whom were the fourth rank, but the General Manager was nominally the superior, but the local Transport Commissioner and the Deputy General Manager had greater sovereignty.

For example, when Xia Song was the General Manager of Shaanxi Road in history, Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan disagreed with him, and the local Transport Commissioner also disobeyed orders.

Obviously, this is still the tradition of the Song Dynasty. For the frontier officials with military power, someone must be restrained and guarded.

However, after the reform, the General Manager is the second rank, and the Deputy Envoy and the General Manager of the Army are the second rank. Basically, the General Manager is already in power, in charge of the military and political power of a place, which can be said to be very powerful.

Zhao Zhen was actually a little worried, or the Emperor of the Song Dynasty attached too much importance to military power.

However, Zhao Jun told him that it was impossible for the frontier officials to rebel under the existing system. First, Han Qi was transferred temporarily and had no prestige. He could not convince the public if he wanted to rebel. Second, Zhang Kang was also there. What could he use to rebel?

Unless Zhang Kang rebelled, Zhang Kang had repeatedly made meritorious deeds in the war with the Western Xia and Liao Kingdom in the Jingyou years. His prestige in the army was second only to Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong. His rebellion would be a little promising.

But the soldiers' families were all in Bianliang, and if Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong went out, do you believe that the soldiers following Zhang Kang would surrender soon?

So sometimes the emperor should relax a little and not worry too much.

Under Zhao Jun's persuasion, Zhao Zhen dispelled his concerns and ordered Han Qi and Zhang Kang to lead 30,000 Bianliang imperial guards to the northwest. In this way, together with the approximately 120,000 troops in Shaanxi Road, it was enough to fight against the Western Xia.

After Qinfeng Road sent people to Lanzhou first, they immediately sent people to condemn Li Yuanhao, saying that he attacked the allies of the Song Dynasty and wantonly provoked a war with the Song Dynasty.

Li Yuanhao responded that this was an old grudge between them and Qingtang and had nothing to do with the Song Dynasty.

If the Song Dynasty sent troops, then the Song Dynasty would be responsible for tearing up the peace talks between the two sides, and the blame would be on the Song Dynasty.

The two sides began to have a war of words.

This war of words seems meaningless on the surface, but in fact it has a great intention, which is to compete for the righteousness.

The Song Dynasty accused Xixia of provoking the war first, and they were right.

Xixia said that they did not attack the Song Dynasty, but Qingtang and Xixia were sworn enemies, and it was reasonable for them to fight with their enemies. If the Song Dynasty sent troops, it would be the Song Dynasty that provoked the war first.

Don’t think that this righteousness seems to be useless. After all, the war is fought to see who has the strongest soldiers and horses, not to say who is right will gain the advantage.

However, it seems like this, but in fact, sometimes, righteousness is the key factor to victory.

Because who is right, the mentality of the soldiers is different.

Cao Cao has righteousness in his hands, he can constantly claim that he is following the emperor's edict and fight against disobedients everywhere, and the soldiers below will be willing to obey, feel at ease, and have high morale, so that he can win again and again.

Nurhaci's "Seven Great Hates" fully mobilized the soldiers' resentment, so the Manchus fought fiercely and treated the Han people like enemies.

After all, for the lower-level soldiers, no one wants to fight, and no one wants to die on the battlefield, so they may retreat when fighting.

But if you give them a reason, tell them how the enemy bullies us, or that we are the right party, we are fighting in obedience to destiny, and God is on our side.

In this way, the soldiers will definitely improve their morale and fight to the end, so that the war will go smoothly.

So in ancient times, righteousness is definitely an important condition.

Not only in ancient times, but also in later generations. Just like the anti-Japanese morale of the Sichuan Army, "civil wars are like insects, foreign wars are like dragons."

National hatred and family feuds are the greatest righteousness in themselves. As a result, they are fearless and dare to fight the Japanese pirates to the death with a big flag of "death" and the simplest and worst weapons.

The Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty are competing for this righteousness to give their soldiers a reason to go to war.

Both sides blame each other, but neither side prevents them from continuing to mobilize for war.

Han Qi, Zhang Fangping and Zhang Kang soon arrived in Shaanxi and began to mobilize the troops of the entire Shaanxi Road.

As the Qinfeng Road army was stationed in Lanzhou, Li Yuanhao occupied the estuary, that is, the junction of the Huangshui River and the Yellow River, after taking Huangzhou, and watched the reaction of the Song Dynasty.

Because Li Yuanhao knew that there were only two ways before the Song Dynasty, one was to go west to attack Huangzhou, and the other was to go north to play Wei to save Zhao.

No matter which path he takes, he will fall into Li Yuanhao's trap and snare, so he is not worried.

And just as the two sides were preparing to start the war, in the Liao Kingdom far in the northeast, it was a different situation.

Yelv Zongzhen suddenly hunted eastward and arrived at Shenyang Prefecture in Tokyo, Liao Kingdom.

In the palace of Shenyang Mansion, Yelu Zongzhen was wearing a felt hat and a large fur robe, looking graceful and luxurious.

After autumn entered in July, the temperature in the Northeast began to drop a lot, and the nights became quite cold. Therefore, he gave up the Song Dynasty silk coat worn in summer and chose the fur coat commonly worn by the Liao people.

There were several tall figures standing in front of Yelu Zongzhen. These people looked quite strange. Their heads were all shaved, except for the sideburns on their sides and forehead, which were tied into two long braids. Down, it looks a bit like the traditional Liao hairstyle, but not as thick as the Liao braids.

The man at the front also wore a small felt hat, his upper body was a white linen coat with a large collared robe lined with suede, his lower body was black velvet trousers with leggings, and he wore round boots. The whole person exuded a fierce temperament and was dressed quite smartly.

He bowed to Yelu Zongzhen with the Liao ceremony and said, "Your Majesty, Wu Gu is here to see you!"

This person is Wanyan Wugunai, the grandfather of Jin Taizu Wanyan Aguda. His eight-year-old second son Wanyan Qilibo is the father of Wanyan Aguda. The Jurchens can rise because of his growing strength. .

Naturally, Yelu Zongzhen didn't know that Wanyan Wugunai's grandson would destroy his Daliao in the future, so when he saw Wanyan Wugunai, he nodded slightly and said, "Well, everyone, please sit down."

He had a good attitude towards Wanyan Wugunai, because now all the tribes of the Jurchen tribe were attached to Wanyan Shixian and were hostile to them in the Liao Kingdom. Only Wanyan Wugunai defected to the Liao Kingdom, which made him quite happy, so he immediately summoned him to meet him during the Eastern Hunting.

Wanyan Wugunai and several senior officials of his tribe sat aside, and then Wanyan Wugunai said slightly nervously: "I didn't expect that His Majesty would come in person, which makes me feel flattered."

"hehe."

Naturally, Yelv Zongzhen would not tell him that if it was just a small rebellion caused by the birth of a daughter, the most he could do was send troops to surrender, and this time he came here for Goryeo.

So he just smiled and then said: "This time Wanyan Shixian cut off the Eagle Road, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction in the country. Naturally, I want to come in person, but I want to see how capable Wanyan Shixian is and how dare he go against me!"

Wanyan Wugunai hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is here in person, so Wanyan Shixian will be captured obediently. However, I think that there is no need for Your Majesty to go to war for a minor trouble."

"oh?"

Yelu Zong was really interested and asked with a smile: "This person is arrogant and domineering. I intend to attack him personally to scare the tribes. Listening to your opinion, you seem to have any way to solve it quickly?"

"It's not a solution. I'm just thinking that Shi Xian is perverse, but after all he doesn't dare to go against Daliao, so I have a plan. Especially after His Majesty arrives in person, I feel very confident that it can be solved without fighting. he."

"tell me the story."

"I feel that since Your Majesty is in Tokyo in person, it is better to order Shi Xian to come to Shenyang Mansion immediately to explain to His Majesty. When the time comes, His Majesty will directly capture him, and whether he will be killed or exiled will be up to His Majesty's decision. From now on, the woman can be subdued."

"Will he obey?"

"If he doesn't obey, His Majesty's army will advance, which will frighten all the tribes."

Wanyan Wugunai immediately said: "Besides, I still have a certain reputation among straight women. If I try to drive a wedge between them again, things will be settled."

"good."

After hearing this, Yelu Zongzhen felt that there was no problem, so he said: "If this is true and you can capture Shi Xian without any effort, I will grant you the title of Nuzhi Jiedushi!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Wanyan Wugu was elated.

The tribes of Shengnuzhen are independent, and his father's tribe is only one part of it.

Because Wanyan Wugunai's father, Wanyan Shilu, had always believed in the pro-Liao policy, he was named Da Tiyin by the Liao State, and thus became the nominal chief of the Jurchen tribes.

However, the Jurchen tribes have always had "no written contracts, no restrictions, no rules to follow, they live far away, they do not belong to each other, they kill each other, and they all compete for dominance." Therefore, they do not obey Wanyan Shilu at all, and even He almost killed Wanyan Shilu.

After that, Wanyan Shilu spent a long period of time fighting everywhere, attacking the disobedient tribes, which caused many Jurchen tribes to become increasingly dissatisfied with him.

Among them, Wanyan Shixian had a grudge against Wanyan Shilu. After Wanyan Shilu died, his body was taken away by Wanyan Shixian. For this reason, Wanyan Wugu hated him to the core, but because Wanyan Shixian was so powerful, he never dared to do so. Take action.

Now that the Liao Kingdom is willing to support him, Wanyan Wugu can firstly rely on the power of the Liao Kingdom to avenge his father, and secondly, he can use the strength of the Liao Kingdom to strengthen his own power. Once Wanyan Shixian's Wulin tribe is annexed, then his tribe Will become the strongest Jurchen tribe.

It was only natural that his tribe would become stronger and stronger from then on.

In fact, this is also true.

In history, Wanyan Wugunai designed Shi Xian to be exiled by the Liao Kingdom and annexed Shi Xian's tribe.

This led to the fact that although his betrayal of the Jurchens made the Jurchen tribes even more disgusted, he became stronger because he annexed Wanyan Shixian's Wulin tribe.

In addition, various Jurchen tribes fought independently and did not unite together at all, which led to Wanyan Wugunai and his successor Wanyan Qilibo continuously annexing other Jurchen tribes. By the time of Wanyan Aguda period, the Jurchen tribe was basically completed Unite.

From then on, Wanyan Aguda had the foundation to destroy the Liao Kingdom and finally establish the powerful Jin Dynasty.

At that moment, Yelu Zongzhen followed Wanyan Wugunai's plan and sent people to order Shi Xian to come to Tokyo immediately. After Wanyan Wugunai returned, Shi Xian and the leaders of the Jurchen tribes were indeed holding a meeting to discuss this matter.

The Jurchen tribes mainly had two camps, pro-Liao and anti-Liao. Wanyan Wugunai was the leader of the pro-Liao camp, and Shi Xian was the boss of the anti-Liao camp.

The anti-Liao camp was very powerful, because the Jurchen tribes were unrestrained and did not want to be enslaved by the Liao Kingdom. Therefore, facing the years of extortion by the Liao Kingdom, they had been resisting and various uprisings were frequent.

However, the military strength of the Liao Kingdom has been strengthened in recent years. In addition to the Jurchens, many other ethnic groups, such as the Mengwu, Bohai, and Shiwei tribes, were quickly pacified by the Liao people. Therefore, the Jurchens were still full of awe of the powerful Liao Kingdom.

This time, Yelu Zongzhen came in person, and Wanyan Wugunai was instigating discord among them. Many Jurchen tribes thought that as long as Shi Xian went over to explain and find a random reason to prevaricate, he should be able to get away with it.

So everyone agreed to let Shi Xian go to Shenyang Prefecture to meet Yelu Zongzhen in person. After all, the people who went to Liao were not the chiefs of the tribes, and they had nothing to do with them. It was definitely better to die than to die.

Although Shi Xian didn't want to agree, he had to reluctantly agree because everyone agreed. In his opinion, since he only cut off the eagle route and didn't openly rebel, the Liao Kingdom shouldn't do anything to him.

But what Shi Xian never expected was that he was immediately captured as soon as he arrived in Shenyang Prefecture, and then exiled to Mongolia in the northwest of Liao, and disappeared without a trace since then.

Once he disappeared, the Wulinda tribe was leaderless, and the Liao Kingdom appointed Wanyan Wugunai as the governor of the Jurchen tribe. His position was higher than that of Datiyin. Even in Liao, he was a powerful frontier official. Wanyan Wugunai took the opportunity to annex the Wulinda tribe.

The Jurchen tribes immediately realized that Shi Xian was being plotted against by Wanyan Wugunai. They were furious and full of contempt for his naked betrayal of the Jurchen tribe and his own nation.

But no matter what, this has become an established fact. The tribes did not dare to be enemies with the Liao Kingdom, so they could only accept it with a pinch of their noses.

In the midst of this turmoil, the Liao Kingdom reorganized its troops and in August, it recruited some soldiers from the Wanyan tribes, led by Wanyan Wugunai, and officially went south and began to approach Goryeo.