Chapter 239 Don't Be Confused
Liao Dynasty, Shangjing
In an open space in the imperial palace, the Liao emperor watched his soldiers hammering at a concrete wall.
The soldier was very strong. He swung a sledgehammer and hit the concrete wall hard. The "dong dong dong" sound was very harsh.
click
Suddenly, the sledgehammer in the soldier's hand could not bear the weight and the wooden pole broke.
At this time, the concrete wall was just bumped with holes, but there were no cracks or signs of collapse.
"The Han people call this cement. If you add sand and stone and mix it with water, it will become as hard as a rock in just one day. Now, the cities of Zhao Song close to our Great Liao are being repaired and reinforced with this material." The Liao emperor said solemnly.
Yelu Chongyuan said casually: "Your Majesty, is this what you asked me to come here to see?"
The Liao Emperor looked at Yelu Chongyuan, a trace of gloom flashed in his eyes, and said: "Uncle, do you think this is not important?"
"What's so important about this? The north of Zhao Song is flat. If my Great Liao wants to send troops to Zhao Song, we can directly use cavalry to attack the hinterland and force the defenders to leave the city. What does it matter how strong the city is built by Zhao Song?" Yelu Chongyuan said nonchalantly.
"The Grand Marshal is wrong."
A Han official retorted: "The Zhao Song has this magical object. If we use it to link up the border cities like the Great Wall, the Liao cavalry's advantage will be wiped out!"
"Hmph, the Han people have a saying that goes "to boost others' ambitions will destroy one's own prestige." The warriors of my Great Liao are not all dead. How can we sit idly by and watch the Zhao Song connect the cities with city walls? What's more, although this thing is magical, it is not cheap. Otherwise, the Zhao Song could just use this thing to repair the city. Why bother collecting stones so much?" Yelu Chongyuan said disdainfully.
"The Grand Marshal is right. The Zhao Song is too weak and is only seeking peace. Even if they have such a magical object, they can only defend themselves. They pose no threat to the Liao Dynasty." An official beside Yelu Chongyuan said.
"Ruling the Central Plains has always been the wish of successive emperors. No matter what, the possession of this item by Zhao Song will pose a great threat to our Liao Dynasty's future rule over the Central Plains. We cannot allow Zhao Song to repair and reinforce the city so peacefully. My uncle is still as powerful as he was in the past, so he will be responsible for sending troops to harass Zhao Song and prevent it from repairing the city peacefully. If you can get the production method of this item, I will reward you handsomely." said the Liao Emperor.
"Your Majesty, once I send troops, the agreement with Zhao Song will be torn up, and there will be no annual tribute." Yelu Chongyuan said.
"I am not asking my uncle to send troops directly. Every year, each tribe sends cavalry disguised as bandits to go to Zhao Song to plunder the valley. My uncle can just send some people disguised as bandits to harass them." said the Liao Emperor.
The Liao Dynasty was a nomadic people. Although they had been working towards centralization since their founding, the centralization was not thorough enough.
The Khitan nobles in the country all had some military power and a certain degree of autonomy.
Although the two countries had been at peace for decades, the Khitan nobles would send a small group of cavalry disguised as horse bandits to the Song Dynasty to rob grass and grain every year after the autumn harvest.
The Song Dynasty had no strategic locations to defend in the north, so it was difficult to defend against the attack and was overwhelmed.
The Song Dynasty also knew that those so-called horse bandits were sent by the Liao Kingdom.
The Song Dynasty once sent envoys to the Liao Kingdom to question the situation, but the Liao Kingdom refused to acknowledge it, and the Song Dynasty did not have the courage to go to war with the Liao Kingdom.
However, the border cities of the Song Dynasty were now under repair, and a large number of civilians were working, so it was difficult for the Liao army to hide their tracks. Even though the Song Dynasty had already harvested in autumn, the nobles of the Liao Dynasty did not send troops to plunder.
The Liao emperor's intention was to let Yelu Chongyuan send out several groups of cavalry to disguise as horse bandits. On the surface, they seemed to be going to plunder, but in fact, they were trying to delay the Song Dynasty's repair of the city.
"Since Your Majesty has given the order, I will certainly obey it!" Yelu Chongyuan replied.
"Huh?" The Liao Emperor was stunned.
Yelu Chongyuan had a lot of soldiers and horses, and he also won over some nobles who also had soldiers and horses.
After he ascended the throne, in order to stabilize Yelu Chongyuan, he conferred on him the title of Crown Uncle and Grand Marshal of the Army.
However, Yelu Chongyuan's existence was always a threat to him.
At the beginning of this year, he was on patrol and was assassinated. After investigation, it was found that the assassin was sent by Yelu Chongyuan.
The Liao emperor originally wanted to slowly divide and win over Yelu Chongyuan's forces, but Yelu Chongyuan's move on him made him realize that he could not wait any longer.
However, in order to take action against Yelu Chongyuan, his power must be disintegrated first. Killing Yelu Chongyuan alone would cause chaos in the Liao Kingdom.
He killed Yelu Chongyuan, and those nobles who had surrendered to Yelu Chongyuan and Yelu Chongyuan's son would inevitably rise up in rebellion to protect themselves.
Even if he promised not to pursue the matter, the nobles would not surrender because they were afraid that he would take revenge on them later.
Yelu Chongyuan was also aware of this, and this was the reason why he dared to come to Beijing.
The Liao emperor ordered Yelu Chongyuan to send troops to harass the Song Dynasty to repair the city, so he naturally had no good intentions.
Yelu Chongyuan's territory was not close to the Song Dynasty. On the contrary, the several nobles who defected to him were not far from the Song Dynasty.
If Yelu Chongyuan takes on this task, he will definitely ask those tribes to send troops.
He planned to send someone to remind the Song Dynasty and use the Song Dynasty's help to inflict heavy losses on the troops sent.
Those nobles joined Yelu Chongyuan for the sake of benefits. Once those nobles suffered heavy losses, Yelu Chongyuan had to compensate them in order to retain the support of the people.
However, Yelu Chongyuan could not compensate for all the losses, and those nobles would have some complaints in their hearts. Then he could send people to contact and win over those nobles.
Even if they cannot win them over, they can use counter-espionage tactics to make Yelu Chongyuan suspicious of them.
The Liao emperor was prepared for Yelu Chongyuan to refuse and shirk his responsibility. Before that, he had discussed various countermeasures with his confidants to force Yelu Chongyuan to agree.
Who would have thought that Yelu Chongyuan agreed directly.
Such an abnormal behavior made the Liao emperor confused for a while. "Your Majesty, I will personally take charge of this matter, but the border of the Song Dynasty is currently under construction, so we must be prepared. I am afraid that the losses of this expedition will be considerable, so Your Majesty needs to give us some compensation." Yelu Chongyuan said with a smile.
The Liao emperor looked at Yelu Chongyuan and thought to himself, "Could it be that Yelu Chongyuan agreed so readily in order to deceive me? Or does he have other plans?"
Yelu Chongyuan agreed so readily that the Liao emperor was somewhat hesitant.
"Your Majesty asked me to harass the Song Dynasty. There should be no compensation at all, right?" Seeing that the Liao emperor did not speak, Yelu Chongyuan began to take the initiative.
"Of course there are. Your uncle also knows that the national treasury is empty now. But if your uncle suffers too great a loss, I will certainly compensate him." said the Emperor of Liao.
He didn't know what Yelu Chongyuan wanted to do, so his answer was vague.
"Okay!" Yelu Chongyuan smiled and said, "If Your Majesty has no other instructions, I will be ready to go."
The Liao emperor looked at Yelu Chongyuan deeply and said, "Go, uncle."
"I'm leaving!" Yelu Chongyuan put his hands on his chest, bowed without bending his waist, turned around and left.
The Emperor of Liao had something on his mind, so he sent away all the other ministers and only left a few trusted ones. He returned to the palace to discuss countermeasures.
However, after much discussion, they could not come to any conclusion, so they could only send people to keep an eye on Yelu Chongyuan.
…………
Although Han Zhang agreed to let Zhao Xing take charge of the city repair, he did not dare to be careless because it was related to the stability of the border and always had people pay close attention to it.
When Sheng Wei arrived at the northern border, he was not in a hurry to build a city. Instead, he hired people to collect stones and sand and transport them to the border cities.
At the same time, a large number of kilns were built near the border to make bricks.
After accumulating a large amount of stones and bricks, they began to formally repair the city.
Han Zhang became anxious when he saw that the construction had not officially started yet.
After winter comes, the weather in the north becomes freezing cold, and the repair of the city must be completed before winter.
Han Zhang wanted to ask Zhao Xing about it, but finally he held back.
By the beginning of August, news finally came that construction had officially started.
Although it has been delayed for some time, there are not many cities of the Liao Kingdom facing the northern border of the Song Dynasty. As long as the two most important cities of Xiongzhou and Bazhou are repaired before winter, there is no rush to repair the remaining small cities next year.
After all, the imperial court only paid 500,000 taels of silver, and it is not easy to ask for too much from this small amount of money.
As a result, he received news not long ago that the people who were repairing the city used something unknown to stick the bricks and stones together, making them unbreakable, and the repair speed was very fast.
Not only were the dilapidated areas repaired, but the city walls were also raised and reinforced.
Anyway, the things they said sounded miraculous, so Han Zhang was somewhat skeptical and ordered someone to bring some back.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would always have some doubts.
Han Zhang was thinking about these things when his attendant came in and saluted, saying, "My lord, Prime Minister Shen is here."
"Go prepare the tea."
Han Zhang came back to his senses after hearing this, gave an order, then stood up and walked out of the public housing.
"My Lord!" Lord Shen bowed.
"Bo Ming." Han Zhang returned the greeting and said sideways, "Let's talk inside."
The two men entered the public room. After the host and the guest sat down, the attendant served tea and left.
"Bo Ming came to see me, what's the matter?" Han Zhang asked.
Shen Xianggong put down his teacup and whispered, "Grand Xianggong, I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is planning to implement the Qingmiao Law in Kaifeng Prefecture."
Han Zhang looked at him straightly and said, "Bo Ming, tell me the truth, did anyone tell you something?"
He didn't know what the Qingmiao Law was, and he hadn't heard any news about it.
What he didn't know, Lord Shen knew. Either Lord Shen sent people to monitor every move of Kaifeng Prefecture, or someone told Lord Shen something.
Han Zhang felt that the possibility of the former was very small, but the possibility of the latter was more likely.
"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, Lord." Lord Shen said with a wry smile, "In recent days, many officials have come to see me, and this is the news they told me."
Han Zhang was silent for a while after hearing this, and then said, "If I remember correctly, the Bo Ming family has a long history and is a prominent family in Zhengzhou, right?"
"That's right, but I strongly support the investigation of land. When His Majesty gave the order, I had already ordered people to return to the clan and tell the clan members to check themselves. If there are any hidden fields, they must hand them all over. Otherwise, don't come to me if anything goes wrong." said Prime Minister Shen.
"Bo Ming sees everything clearly." Han Zhang nodded slightly and said, "If that's the case, we shouldn't be confused at this time."
(End of this chapter)