Chapter 23 three

The Guqin Terrace is located at the end of Guishan Mountain, on the side of Moon Lake, and the ancient Cuige Bridge, which is full of Danhuibiying. According to legend, Yu Boya played the qin here in ancient times, and Zhong Ziqi knew from the sound of the qin that his ambition was in the mountains and rivers, and the two became irreversible.After Zhong Ziqi's death, Boya lamented that it was hard to find a bosom friend, so he broke the strings of the qin and never played the qin again for the rest of his life.Later generations felt the friendship between the two and built a platform here to commemorate it.

Hao Jing, Zhao Bi, Song Jing, Secretary and Superintendent of Prime Minister Song You, and Zhang Sheng, Ezhou Guard, climbed onto the Guqin platform side by side, talking about the past and the present, and it was quite speculative.Song Jing admired Hao Jing's extensive knowledge and strong memory, and praised: "Mr. Hao is full of knowledge, and he is really a talent for changing the world. I don't want Mongolia to have such a talent." "Your Majesty Song's words are wrong. In the mansion of my king, Kublai Khan, a person like me who has little talent and little learning can be said to be very capable." Thirty-six-year-old Hao Jing pointed to Zhao Bi and said, "Let's just say our General Zhao Bi, he looks gentle and elegant, but he is actually very courageous. The year he was born coincided with the time when Mengge was the Great Khan, and the Khan called him to ask him to rule the way. Yue, but there was nothing he could do. Afterwards, His Highness Kublai Khan said to him: "Xiu Cai, you are so courageous, even this king is sweating for you." This year, after the mediation of His Highness, Zhao Bi was ordered. Yu Yan', the sixth department of the headquarters, is in charge of the administration of wealth and taxation in Han."

"What kind of official position is that, and how high is it?" Song Jing asked with interest. "The sixth division of the general secretary Yu Yan is the sixth division of the Xingshangshu Yu Yan, which is equivalent to the second rank of your country's official rank." Hao Jing patiently explained. The four of them walked to the winding and exquisite "Qintai Tablet Corridor", and Zhao Bi stopped to admire the inscriptions in the corridor, such as "The Inscription and Preface to the Qintai in Han Dynasty" and "Bo Ya Shi Kao". These inscriptions are either delicate and neat, or free and unrestrained , but all are strong and powerful.

Zhao Bi is not only proficient in Central Plains culture, but also proficient in Mongolian and Uighur languages.This time I visited the Guqin Terrace, and I couldn’t help but feel a lot of emotion: “Song, Liao and Jin’s wooden temples are mostly Buddhist temples. The structure of the roof mostly inherits the legacy of the Tang Dynasty. Although the size of the pavilions varies greatly, their styles are roughly the same. The main building is a hall with a single eaves resting on the top of the mountain, with a Tang style and a Song style. The paintings are exquisite and resplendent, and the plaque under the eaves reads "Mountains and Flowing Water", which is elegant and elegant. The square shape made of white marble in front of the hall The stone platform, simple and elegant, makes people think about others, as if Boya is still playing a piano here. The surrounding stone railings are decorated with relief carvings, vivid and exquisite carvings, hidden in the scenery of lakes and mountains, sparse forests and flowers, making it more magnificent and colorful , the scenery is beautiful."

Although Song Jing talked about the past and the present with Zhao Bi and Hao Jing, he was not at ease. Before he was ordered to negotiate with the Mongolian army, Prime Minister Jia Sidao promised him to act cheaply, as long as the Mongolian army was willing to retreat, he would pay any price.He is well aware of Jia Sidao's character, if the negotiation fails, Jia Sidao will definitely turn his anger on him, and at that time, he is afraid that his life will be lost. In fact, from the day when Kublai Khan swept across the Yangtze River and Huaihe River and approached the city of Ezhou, the Right Prime Minister Jia Sidao, who is also the ambassador of the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River, secretly sent his confidant Song Jingbei to cross the Yangtze River to Mengying to ask Kublai Khan. He, on the one hand, led troops to station in Hanyang, fully commanded all Song troops on the front lines of Sichuan, Huguang, and Huaihe Rivers, and supported each other with Zhang Sheng, the defender of Ezhou, and defended them with all their strength.The Song army had an absolute advantage in military strength, and the generals controlled by Jia Sidao had rich combat experience. Therefore, the Mongolian army's attack on Ezhou was repeatedly frustrated.However, while Jia Sidao was on the defensive, he still refused to give up his plan to negotiate peace with Mongolia. He sent Song Jing to Kublai Khan's army several times, and proposed to profess his minister to Mongolia and pay the old coins as the conditions for peace negotiation.At that time, Kublai Khan rejected Jia Sidao's request for peace talks on the grounds that "the Mongolian army in attack is like a runaway horse, which is difficult to control for a while".

When the news of Mengge Khan's death in Diaoyu City came, Jia Sidao was very excited. He sent Song Jing to Kublai Khan's army again to ask for peace, and promised to cut the river as a boundary, and each year he would give 200,000 taels of silver and silk (horses).Kublai Khan also changed his previous tough attitude of refusing peace talks, and accepted Song's peace talks.Moreover, in order to preserve the more than 3,000 Mongolian cavalry and the more than 10,000 barbarian and Han troops who besieged Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) as well as possible, he sent Zhao Bi and Hao Jing into Ezhou City to meet with Ezhou defender Zhang Shenghe. Song Jing negotiated the withdrawal route of the Mongolian general Wuliang Hetai.

After the Mongols aggressively attacked the Song Dynasty, Wuliang Hetai was ordered by Mengge Khan to lead his troops into the South Guangxi Road of the Song Dynasty.After breaking through important passes such as Hengshanzhai, Pennsylvania, Guizhou, and Liuzhou, they entered Hunan.In Hunan, the Mongolian army was besieged by heavy troops from the Song army, so Wuliang Hetai turned to the northwest, broke through Yuanzhou and Chenchuan, advanced eastward, crossed the Xiangjiang River in mid-November, and arrived at the city of Tanzhou.200,000 Song troops from Tanzhou went out to fight against the city, and Wuliang Hetai defeated it with more than 13,000 expeditionary troops.Just at this time, Wu Lianghetai learned that Kublai Khan had led his army to besiege Ezhou and that Mengge Khan had died in battle in Diaoyu City, so he surrounded Tanzhou and sent envoys to report the military situation to Kublai Khan.Kublai Khan immediately sent 30,000 Mongolian troops to help.

Today, at the Guqin Terrace, Ezhou defenders Zhang Sheng, Song Jing, Zhao Bi, and Hao Jing are sitting opposite each other, and the negotiations are getting to the point. Zhao Bi took the lead in coming up with the withdrawal plan that he and Hao Jing had repeatedly studied. "Our planned withdrawal route is: Wulianghetai troops go north from Tanzhou to Yuezhou (now Yueyang City, Hunan Province) along the Xiangjiang River, sail against the current to the city of Ezhou, and meet with the main force of our East Route Army. During the period, you still need to provide 2,000 troops a ferry and all provisions."

Zhang Sheng held up his sword and stood up: "That's impossible! If the Mongolian army breaks their promises and takes the opportunity to attack Ezhou from north to south, wouldn't the city of Ezhou be in danger? Of course, we can provide ferries and military supplies, but the headquarters of General Wuliang Hetai must be two miles south of Ezhou city." After ten miles, we will disembark and retreat on foot, and our military can secretly make way for a passage. In addition, according to the agreement, we have the right to monitor and escort." "What the general said is very true. In order to show our sincerity in fulfilling the peace agreement, I will stay in Ezhou as a hostage. What does the general think?" After Hao Jing finished speaking, before Zhang Sheng could answer, he turned the conversation to the exhausted Song Jing , "General Song Jing, according to the agreement, Song You Prime Minister Jia Sidao should be present for the peace negotiation. General Zhao and I have been here for three hours, and we have not met Prime Minister Jia. What do you mean?"

Song Jing has been having trouble sleeping and eating these days.This time, because the Mongolia-Song peace talks were not publicized, all activities were carried out in a secret state.He went to Kublai Khan's tent several times, and Kublai Khan always treated him with courtesy, which made him full of affection for this handsome and promising vassal king.He felt that Kublai Khan had little domineering airs, which was very different from many Mongolian nobles he had come into contact with in the past... Just as he was distracted, he suddenly heard Hao Jing asking him why Jia Sidao didn't come, and he shivered unconsciously. My mind became clearer a lot.

In order to secretly sign the peace agreement, Song Jing asked Jia Sidao to meet with the Mongolian envoys, but Jia Sidao rejected them on the grounds that "the Mongolian envoys are small and low-ranking officials", and entrusted him with full authority to sign the negotiation agreement.Such an important and secret matter, but the powerful officials did not come forward, how could Song Jing not know the pros and cons of it.After all, this is the crime of deceiving the emperor, and the crime should be the extermination of the nine clans.Considering this, Song Jing only felt cold sweat flowing all over his body.He tried his best to explain: "Recently, Prime Minister Jia has occasionally caught a cold and his illness is getting worse. The meeting and signing ceremony with the envoys that were scheduled to be canceled had to be cancelled. I ask the two envoys to play His Highness Kublai Khan for your understanding." Speaking of this, Song Jing slightly puffed up his chest, cleared his throat: "For the sake of saving the people of the world from suffering, and relieving the people from hanging upside down, I am entrusting you to Jia Si, the right prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty, who is a member of the political affairs department, a member of the Privy Council, and the ambassador of Lianghuai Propaganda." Dao’s order: Song Jing, Secretary of the Right Prime Minister’s Mansion of the Song Dynasty, General Zhang Sheng, General Zhang Sheng of Ezhou, and Jianghuai Jinghu Economic Envoy, Zhao Bi, Jianghuai Jinghu Economic Strategy Envoy of the Great Mongol Kingdom, and Jianghuai Jinghu North and North, etc. The deputy envoy Hao Jing discussed the peace and signed a peace agreement. The terms are as follows: 1. The emperor of the Song Dynasty surrendered to the Mongol emperor. The two sides use the Yangtze River as the boundary, and the people can still choose the location to demarcate the border for trade. Fourth, the Mongolian army will withdraw its troops within six days after the signing takes effect." After the terms of the agreement were read out, negotiators from both sides signed their names.This is the famous Ezhou alliance and Kaiqing agreement in history. Jia Sidao didn't think about making progress when the Mongolian army failed in repeated battles. He could only protect himself, and even signed a secret agreement with Mongolia behind Song Lizong's back.Li Zong promoted his younger brother Jia Sidao, a rogue young man, to a high position just because he loved Concubine Jia. The treacherous officials are in power, the owner is licentious, and the internal and external difficulties.The death of the Song Dynasty was not so much God's will, it was man-made!