Chapter 52 Section five

In fact, when the Song people recovered by force, they had already started to implement the plan to hire the Jurchens as mercenaries. Just a few days before Liu Yanqing's Lugouhe defeat, Zhao Liangsi, Ma Kuo and his party had arrived in Jin and asked the Jurchens to send troops to help the Song people regain Youyun. How could the Jurchens not agree to such a request?Wanyan Aguda didn't care much about the violation of the alliance by the Song people, but the Jurchen said, we won't give you the sixteen prefectures of Youyun after we beat them down for you, but only six prefectures and twenty-four counties .

Zhao Liangsi and the others were stunned. It seems that the Jurchen is not a fool to let you take advantage of it for nothing. The two sides began to bargain. The Jurchens sent troops directly without waiting to discuss with the Song people.In October of the fifth year of Xuanhe (1123 A.D.), Agu ordered Nianhan (Wanyan Zonghan) to march into Nanankou, Talan (Wanyanchang) to march into Gubeikou, and led his own troops to enter Juyongguan, preparing to attack in three groups. Youzhou. After resisting the two consecutive attacks of the 100,000 Song army, Youzhou had already been seriously injured. Facing the menacing Jurchens, they knew that it was impossible to complete the task of defending Youzhou.

After the Empress Dowager Xiao begged the Jurchen to surrender again to no avail, the Liao people chose to give up. The Empress Dowager Xiao, Yelu Dashi and others led the remnants to defect to Emperor Tianzuo who was far away in Jiashan (after arriving in Jiashan, Emperor Tianzuo asked Yelu Dashi angrily, Why do you dare to support another emperor before you die? Dashi said that you are a prodigal son, your ancestors’ family fortune has been ruined by you, and now the Khitan people are almost extinct. The emperor. Yelu Yanxi felt ashamed and did not kill Yelu Dashi, but the Empress Dowager Xiao did not let him go and beheaded), while another general Xiao Qian led his troops to Xi Wangfu.

The Jurchens arrived in Youzhou and occupied Youzhou City, which the Song people failed to capture twice, without a single soldier. After conquering Youzhou City, the Jurchens and the Song people began the process of asking for prices and repaying the money. During this period, Ma Kuo, who was negotiating with the Jurchens as a deputy envoy, presented the "Three Strategies for Making Gold" to Prime Minister Wang Fu. Spend money at all costs to redeem You Yun. Ma Kuo's memorial was thrown into the trash by Wang Fu. What he, Tong Guan and others were thinking about was how to spend money to buy Youzhou back and complete the eternal great cause of "reviving Youyun".

As for the Jurchen, after conquering Youzhou, Wanyan Aguda's physical health has deteriorated. Although many internal generals and former Liao ministers objected to returning Youzhou to the Northern Song Dynasty, Aguda, who knew that he had not much time left, weighed it After pros and cons, he decided to abide by Song Jin's covenant. He said to his subordinates, I don't want to violate the Song-Jin alliance again when I am alive, and after my death, you can make a decision according to the specific situation. Returning Youyun became Wanyan Aguda's last move for his successors, and also put the Northern Song Empire into a desperate situation.

After repeated negotiations, the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty reached an agreement. The Song Dynasty acquired the six prefectures of Yanjing (Zhuo, Yi, Tan, Shun, Jing, and Ji) and the surrounding 24 counties at the price of 1.5 million taels per year.The Song Dynasty also paid one million taels of silver to the Jurchen at one time, and obtained Xijing and other eight surrounding states (including Wu, Ying, Shuo, Wei, Fengsheng, Guihua, Gui, and Confucianism). But the Jurchens could take away everything they could, people, wealth, and livestock, and by the way destroyed all the fortress walls in the Youyun area, leaving the Song people to waste the city and the wilderness.

It was the fifth year of Xuanhe, and Zhao Ji finally fulfilled his dream of recovering Youyun.At the beginning of the fifth year of Xuanhe, the Minister of the Ministry of Households of the Empire also told him that the population of the Northern Song Empire had reached 20,882,358 households, with a population of 46.73 million. Four thousand seven hundred and eighty-four people (in fact, later historians believe that this latter data is inaccurate, and the population of the empire reached about 120 million in the first year of Daguan, that is, in 1110 A.D.). The data surpassed the more extensive territory of the prosperous Tang Dynasty; and the financial revenue of the empire had already broken through, and it was superior to the previous dynasties and future generations.

Not only that, but in the fifth year of Xuanhe, the "Fairyland" in Zhao Ji's heart, the most luxurious and artistic royal garden Longevity Mountain in Chinese history (later renamed Genyue) was also announced to be completed.As an artificial garden, the highest peak of the man-made stone mountain can reach 90 steps, and the circumference of the mountain is more than ten miles. There are strange flowers and stones placed in it.The most peculiar thing is the huge stone that Zhu Xi brought back from Taihu Lake, which is several feet high and wide, and has become a landmark building of Genyue (it was soon used by the citizens of Tokyo as a cannon stone to resist the Jin soldiers).

As an emperor, perhaps Zhao Ji's regret in the five years of Xuanhe is that the woman named Li Shishi has been refusing to enter the palace as a concubine! Little did he know, his empire was already in full swing.

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