Chapter 40 Section 4 Reply to Li Yuanhao

After repelling Han Qi's army, Li Yuanhao next had to deal with Fan Zhongyan, another commander of the Song Dynasty guarding the northwest.Fan Zhongyan built fortifications in Yanzhou, consolidated the city defenses, insisted on taking defense as offense, and did not fight.And Li Yuanhao's Xia army is just good at field combat, and knows nothing about siege.So, since a strong attack is not enough, what method will Li Yuanhao use to deal with Fan Zhongyan? Before the Battle of Haoshuichuan, Yuan Hao wrote to Fan Zhongyan to seek peace.Fan Zhongyan was very happy, Yuan Hao took the initiative to write a letter, but the letter of credence?When I opened it, it was either a credential or an ordinary letter.This thing cannot be handed over to the imperial court, let me see for myself.At first glance, Yuan Hao's letter uses Xia Guo's year name, not Song Dynasty's year name.He is already an emperor and has his own year name.The year names of ancient Chinese emperors generally consisted of two characters, some had three characters, and some had four characters. For example, the reign names of Wu Zetian included Long Live Tongtian and Long Live Dengfeng.However, Yuan Hao used six words—Heaven-given etiquette Yanzuo, I am the emperor's order, Yongyan Emperor Zuo.Fan Zhongyan looked at the inscription of Li Yuanhao's letter. It is a certain year that the law of heaven has been granted, and this thing cannot be shown to the court. Since it is Li Yuanhao's letter to me, not to the court's Shangshu, then I will write you a letter.Therefore, Fan Zhongyan wrote a reply letter to Li Yuanhao, with more than 2,000 words eloquently. Today, you can see "Reply to Li Yuanhao's Letter" in "The Complete Works of Fan Wenzhenggong".Fan Zhongyan first told Li Yuanhao about the history of the long-term friendship between the two countries, and then wrote about how my Great Song Dynasty treats you well, and then persuaded him with good words. In fact, what our Great Song Dynasty hates most is that you are the emperor. As long as you don’t become the emperor, what will you do? It's easy to say.Your nation is different from China in terms of language, characters, customs, clothes, and hairstyles. Why do you have to learn from China and call yourself the Son of Heaven?You can call it Khan, Shanyu or Zanpu, as long as you don't call him emperor or emperor, things are negotiable.In the end, he told Li Yuanhao that peace would benefit both, and war would hurt both, and that war would benefit neither side.Then, Fan Zhongyan sent envoys to Xixia to deliver letters following Li Yuanhao's envoys.

At the beginning, Li Yuanhao treated them well, eating and drinking well, and entertained them well. After the outcome of the Battle of Haoshuichuan was known, his attitude changed immediately.Li Yuanhao hastily wrote a letter of credence, which is actually not an official letter of credence. He handed it over to the envoy and brought it to Fan Zhongyan for him to take a good look.The envoy hurried on and brought Li Yuanhao's letter back.Fan Zhongyan said a few polite words to the envoy, saying that he was exhausted after a hard journey, so let's go home and rest.After sending the envoy away, Fan Zhongyan hurriedly turned on the light to read Li Yuanhao's letter at night, and before he finished reading it, his head became big.