Chapter 1 An Unexpected Note

Gao Shouyi, a Xia envoy, never imagined he would receive such a short and alarming note from within the Song Dynasty's imperial court.

The note's contents were so absurd and devoid of etiquette, yet it bore the Zhao Song emperor's personal seal, and he had received it himself after burning incense in the famous nameless stone pavilion amidst the autumn rain... At that time, a Zhao Song scholar of the Jade Hall, with a plump, white face and elegant demeanor, had personally handed him the note, along with a finely bound *History Records*《史记》. There was no mistaking its authenticity.

Frankly, after returning to the Xia embassy by the Bian River in the west of the city with the weighty note and the *History Records*, Gao Shouyi didn't sleep a wink all night. He even considered starting a pot of mutton soup in his room, burning the book as fuel, and then stewing the note until it disintegrated, eating it along with the meat.

But he dared not.

The Zhao Song emperor's threat on the note was so direct. He couldn't imagine concealing the matter, only for it to appear one day in the Song imperial gazette, known to all under heaven. What would he do then?

The core of the matter was that, despite its post-Jingkang decline, the Song Dynasty had risen again after the Battle of Yao Mountain and remained the foremost power in the world. Thus, the Song emperor was still the most powerful man under heaven... truly the most powerful, with three brothers ruling to the north, and only one whose word mattered in the south.

And anything such a man brought about, no matter how absurd, he, an envoy from a small foreign nation, had to treat with the utmost caution.

Therefore, after a sleepless night, the next morning, the Xia envoy finally summoned his scribe. He first carefully drafted a memorial, roughly describing the events, to provide a buffer for his own ruler. Then, he had men seal the humiliating note and the *History Records* together in a tight box, along with the scribe's memorial, and send them by fast horse through the autumn rain of Tokyo in the fifth year of Jianyan.

He dutifully followed the Zhao Song emperor's instructions.

Of course, even so, one could imagine that by the time the message reached Xia, it would likely be late autumn.

So, rather than expecting the Xia ruler, who had seen so many Song and Liao emperors come and go, to react, it was better to focus on the Tai Xue Grand Examination and the palace examination, both postponed to late autumn this year, and on the set of financial reforms planned for the winter. Even from a military perspective, the Jin's movements seemed more worthy of attention.

Wasn't it the usual post-negotiation period, followed by autumn? According to custom, the Jin would be coming.

Sure enough.

It could only be described as inevitable. While the Xia envoy's confidant was urging his horse, solely to deliver a note across thousands of *li*, conflict erupted between the Song and Jin at an expected time and place... Wu Lin, the Deputy Commander of the Rear Army of the Imperial Guard, responsible for defending Fuzhou, suddenly encountered a surprise attack by Jin forces from Yan'an Prefecture to the north. Wanyan Huonv, the Jin commander of the Yan'an campaign, personally led his troops south, and his banner appeared on the front lines.

Of course, since it was an expected offensive, the well-prepared Wu Lin wouldn't suffer a loss. He relied on the Diaoyin Mountain Camp, developed since the time of Qu Duan, to successfully block Wanyan Huonv's offensive. After two days of sudden and fierce fighting, the two sides quickly transitioned to a tactical stalemate.

However, the interesting thing was that, while the Song and Jin forces were deadlocked at Diaoyin Mountain, Danzhou (east of Fuzhou), which had greatly increased its vigilance, did not experience the expected engagement. Instead, the Bao'an Army and Qingzhou areas northwest of Fuzhou were suddenly attacked by Jin forces.

The Jin side army clearly advanced against the Bei Luo River, capturing fortresses and villages along the way.

Caught off guard, the Jin forces seized several fortresses in northern Qingzhou and the core area of the Bao'an Army. Even the main city of the Bao'an Army, Kaolao Fortress (near present-day Zhidan County), was cut off from communication. Guo Hao, the commander of the Rear Army of the Imperial Guard stationed there, and his three thousand elite field troops were temporarily missing.

When news reached Fangzhou, south of Fuzhou, Wu Jie, the commander of the Rear Army of the Imperial Guard stationed there, was shocked, yet strangely confused. He didn't dare to send troops to rescue Guo Hao on his own authority, but repeatedly sent requests for instructions to Yuwen Xuzhong, Han Shizhong, and Hu Yin, three senior officials in Chang'an behind him.

In comparison, Chang'an, as the Guanzhong headquarters repeatedly authorized and guaranteed by the Zhao emperor, responded very directly and quickly. Yuwen Xuzhong, in his capacity as a chief councilor, issued an order requiring Wu Jie to immediately send troops via Fuzhou towards Qingzhou to rescue Guo Hao. At the same time, Hu Yin, the Guanzhong five-route transport commissioner, personally went north to Fangzhou, taking over Fangzhou and supervising logistics there. And Han Shizhong, the Prince of Yan'an, immediately mobilized part of his troops to Tongzhou in response.

Here, it must be said that Wu Jie's hesitation and confusion weren't due to incompetence, but because his thinking was limited by his military identity, which allowed Wanyan Huonv to momentarily outwit him.

You see, from a broader strategic perspective, the Jin forces had no reason to attack the Bao'an Army. Even if they occupied the Bao'an Army, they would face complex terrain to move south, and the fortresses built during the nearly century-long war between the Song and Xia dynasties... And the impoverished Bao'an Army couldn't even provide Wanyan Huonv's main force of more than twenty thousand Jin soldiers with any logistical relief.

Of course, the entire northern Shaanxi was impoverished, and Wanyan Huonv's logistics had always been transported by the Jin from their capital Xijing (Datong).

But in any case, from a military point of view, Wanyan Huonv attacking the Bao'an Army was just that—attacking the Bao'an Army. There was really no strategic value to it.

In comparison, Danzhou, next to the Yellow River, east of Fuzhou, and southeast of Yan'an Prefecture, should have been the real focus. If the Jin forces had any intention of moving south, whether to occupy and expand the land west of the river, or to learn from Lou Shi's previous attempt to take Guanzhong directly along the river, they should have started from there.

In fact, during last year's Battle of Yao Mountain, while Lou Shi led the main force south along the Bei Luo River, it was Wanyan Huonv, then stationed in Yan'an Prefecture, who led a side army to advance on Danzhou along the Yellow River.

And he was very successful.

Therefore, from Wu Jie's perspective as a front-line commander, he really couldn't understand why Huonv didn't come to Danzhou, but instead attacked the Bao'an Army.

However, Huonv didn't attack Danzhou. He attacked the strategically insignificant Bao'an Army.

As for the quick response from Chang'an, it wasn't that Yuwen Xuzhong, Hu Yin, and others were still ignorant of military affairs and blindly giving orders, nor that they had suddenly become famous generals, but that, as civil officials, combined with the news of the Jin civil strife and the death of Nianhan, combined with the situation of Wanyan Huonv stationing inappropriate forces in Yan'an Prefecture, they had long guessed Huonv's subtle mentality and situation.

This autumn Jin southward advance, from a timing perspective, was as usual, but it was very likely that Wanyan Huonv had acted on his own.

And if so, Huonv's attack on the Bao'an Army became reasonable... Because without the cooperation of a large Jin force from Hedong, Huonv couldn't really move south, and couldn't form any strategic goal at all. Instead, it was more realistic to take advantage of the border conflict to annex the Bao'an Army for his own benefit.

The following situation verified this guess... Throughout late August and early September, as Huonv launched his offensive and the Song army's Guanzhong headquarters responded hastily, Li Yanxian in Shanzhou also kept sending messages, all repeating the fact that the Jin army in Hedong had indeed not responded on a large scale.

When Wu Jie personally led ten thousand elite troops from the Rear Army of the Imperial Guard into Qingzhou and began to compete with the Jin forces for fortresses again, Huonv's difficulties and weakness in using his troops became even more obvious. It could be said that, up to this point, his unauthorized dispatch of troops had been completely confirmed.

Of course, it must be said that it wasn't only the Song who were caught off guard by Huonv.

"Huonv!"

In mid-September, news of Huonv's unauthorized dispatch of troops reached the Shangshu Province in Yanjing. A powerful figure there became furious on the spot and even threw the memorial to the ground.

However, this person was none other than the Third Prince Eliduo, who had always been good-tempered and now believed in Buddhism, and was currently the Prince of Jin and the chief minister of the Metropolitan Province.

This contrast inevitably caused the Jin civil and military officials discussing matters in the Shangshu Province to look sideways... Only some were truly surprised, while others immediately understood after a little thought that it was only natural for Eliduo to be most sensitive to Huonv.

Here, it's necessary to interject and talk about the distribution of supreme power in the Jin at this time.

After the death of the founding Emperor Aguda, due to political traditions, military arrangements, blood relations, imperial succession, founding merits, and so on, the Jin Dynasty had formed a tripartite political situation for quite some time: the Wuqimai faction of the former emperor, the Aguda's sons faction, and the Nianhan faction, representing the interests of the distant clan.

However, the Battle of Yao Mountain changed everything. Internal conflicts intensified, and the former Emperor Wuqimai suddenly suffered a stroke. Then, Nianhan took the opportunity to imprison Wuqimai's sons. In addition, the coincidence that he had unintentionally seized Talans' military power in Daming Prefecture, he suddenly and completely suppressed the Wuqimai faction in an unprepared manner and took actual control of the government.

However, as the saying goes, flowers don't bloom for a hundred days. Although Nianhan, who became the powerful official actually in charge of the government, deliberately courted and divided Aguda's sons, he still overlooked the unified political interests of the close branches of the Wanyan clan and overestimated his ability as a collateral clan member to control the government. As a result, Aguda's sons suddenly launched the Shangshu Province coup, killed him again, and seized power.

After the Shangshu Province coup, the Nianhan faction completely disappeared in the central government. Nianhan and his son were directly eliminated physically. Their powerful subordinates, such as Wanyan Xiyin and Wanyan Yinshuke, were bought, controlled, and annexed. The Wuqimai faction was not re-appointed because of disputes with Aguda's sons on the most basic issue of the throne. Wuqimai was still under house arrest, and his sons were virtually exiled. However, Talan, and the Wuye brothers, and Pujianu were retained in the court after the new emperor ascended the throne.

In other words, at this time, the Jin Dynasty's central government, not to mention the young emperor, was actually controlled by Aguda's three eldest sons, who removed the core leaders of the other two major factions and recruited some core figures from the two major factions to achieve political balance. At the same time, in order to complete basic political reforms, the Jin Dynasty's central government also employed a large number of Han officials from Liaodi and newly surrendered southern Han officials as political supplements.

Objectively speaking, this result was already a remarkable political harmony for the Jin Dynasty, which had just broken away from the tribal alliance and was bound to transition to the Han system.

Especially Wanyan Wushu, the fourth son of Aguda, who actually masterminded the Shangshu Province coup, can be said to have made huge political sacrifices for the sake of the overall situation, giving up a lot of originally readily available political interests, and thus established a relatively stable political structure.

However, the Jin's foundation was there. No matter how the political structure was established, some core issues could not be discussed.

For example, the three brothers who actually held power, the eldest prince, the Prince of Liao, and the Pingzhang Military and National Affairs Wanyan Wuben, had been active in Aguda's central army since childhood. Later, he participated in politics as Bojilie and had always had a huge prestige among the central nobles... Before and after the coup, because of the Jurchen customs, he had a certain nominal fostering power over the new emperor, so his core interests were in the tribal alliance-style Jurchen central noble circle.

And the Third Prince Eliduo and the Fourth Prince Wanyan Wushu were even simpler and more direct. One was the Prime Minister of the Metropolitan Province, and the other was the Secretary of the Council of Military Affairs, and they actually took over the control of the Jin's West Route Army and East Route Army respectively.

In the Great Jin, military power was the foundation.

However, this control was not something that the three brothers could just sit there and say, abolish the Grand Marshal's Office, the eldest brother is in charge, the West Route Army is yours, and the East Route Army belongs to me.

The military was deeply rooted and involved the most basic and core political interests... Wushu needed to face the troublesome problem of the Daming Prefecture, where many veterans of the East Route Army gathered, and the reality of the rapid decline and corruption of the Jin army in Hebei. And since Eliduo took over the West Route Army, he also needed to face the two most troublesome military leaders in the West Route Army - Wanyan Balisu in Taiyuan and Wanyan Huonv in Yan'an.

Balisu was still okay, especially Wushu and his brothers, who learned without a teacher and directly idled Yinshuke, who had betrayed them and ruined his reputation, after the coup, but gave Balisu, who held military power, the real power arrangements such as the Taiyuan guard and the commander of the West Route Army's front-line campaign... This made Balisu unhesitatingly abandon his elder brother and directly became the domestic military leader with real power second only to the three brothers.

But at the same time, Huonv was a huge trouble, because Huonv's problem involved too much.

First of all, of course, Wanyan Lou Shi, Huonv's father, left a huge military and personnel legacy for his son within the West Route Army.

Although Lou Shi was killed in battle and his head was displayed to the public, so that his body was still in Yao Mountain, all the Jin soldiers who had been on the battlefield knew what was going on. No Jin soldier would deny Lou Shi's military achievements, qualifications, and his own strength and greatness.

Denying Lou Shi was denying all the heroic deeds and glorious achievements of the Jin army since the uprising!

Even the Battle of Yao Mountain, which led to the reversal of the overall situation between the Song and Jin, did not deny the correctness and timeliness of the battle itself. Now, all the Jin nobles only hate that they did not listen to Lou Shi's advice earlier and did not give Lou Shi more troops when they talked about that battle. In fact, as early as when Nianhan was still alive and Wuqimai was not angered into a stroke, the Jin had unified the tone internally. The reason why Lou Shi died and Yao Mountain was defeated was because Wanyan Lou Shi's old injuries relapsed and he lost his command and combat capabilities on the battlefield.

The so-called time without heroes made the child famous, which allowed the Zhao Song emperor and Han Shizhong, Qu Duan, Wu Jie and others to pick up the cheap.

Even the Song people, after experiencing such a thrilling battle, did not mean to maliciously belittle Lou Shi. This can be seen from the fact that the Zhao Song emperor promoted Liu Ziyu, who opposed the dispatch of troops, immediately after the battle.

Secondly, it was the general distrust of the central government by the West Route Army after Nianhan's death.

There is nothing to say about this... Nianhan was the creator of the West Route Army. It would be strange if the West Route Army did not react when he suddenly died. Think about it, the reason why Huonv was able to maintain such a large number of Jin troops in Yan'an Prefecture must also have had a Nianhan factor. Wasn't it also taking advantage of this opportunity that Balisu was able to take off and rise to prominence?

And again, it involved the Jin's basic national policy.

Wushu launched the coup, on the one hand, to seek the political interests of the faction, but on the other hand, it was because he had long noticed the rapid degeneration and corruption of the Jin army, and the reality that the balance of power between the Song and Jin had reversed rapidly. He intended to take this opportunity to seize power and carry out internal reforms.

And this reason was actively recognized by the Third Prince Eliduo, Wanyan Talan, and many Han officials... Although the fundamental reasons for these people's recognition were different, they generally supported Wushu's basic political demands.

And doing so meant giving up the national policy of military offensive and plunder, and stopping expansion. In other words, the coup itself had a political color of changing from offense to defense and abandoning war to make peace.

However, the Zhao Song emperor in the south did not look like a Zhao Song emperor at all, and almost played rogue and refused to negotiate peace, and successfully attacked Jingdong by surprise... Of course, the Jingdong battle was also unexpected by the highest levels in the north and south. The things on the battlefield could not be controlled by anyone far away in the temple... But in any case, this also gave the pro-war forces within the Jin an excuse.

You said negotiate peace... Did you negotiate peace? Did the Song people give you face? How about the defeat in Jingdong?

This dissatisfaction within the military also indirectly gave Huonv a certain political voice. And this time, in the document that was thrown to the ground by Eliduo, Huonv was pulling the banner of Jingdong's defeat and regaining the morale of the Great Jin from northern Shaanxi to disgust people.

Finally, there was the private grievance between Huonv and Balisu in the competition for the command of the West Route Army after Lou Shi's death.

From Eliduo's point of view, it was of course no problem to prioritize wooing Balisu, who had more troops, was more justified in his official position, controlled Taiyuan, and had some influence on Xijing (Datong) and Hezhong Prefecture.

But conversely, it was also expected that he would offend Huonv.

Only things turned over and over, and the reasons were mutually balanced layer by layer... Still that sentence, even so, Huonv's easy dispatch of troops, regardless of the overall situation, still hit the political prestige of the entire Jin central government, and heavily hit the political prestige of Eliduo, his nominal leader.

If everyone imitated Huonv and ignored the wishes of the central government and dispatched troops privately, wouldn't it cause a great disaster?

Yanjing was also raining, and it was already the last month of autumn. Under the pattering rain, the hearts of the people in the Shangshu Province could not help but feel a little cold.

"Although Huonv is hateful, we can only agree to it for the time being."

Unexpectedly, the person who picked up the document that Eliduo had smashed to the ground and said these words was actually the Fourth Prince Wushu, who was pale and equally unhappy. "Not only that, but we must also let Balisu quickly send reinforcements in response."

"The Fourth Prince is right." The Deputy Prime Minister of the Metropolitan Province, Wanyan Xiyin, also frankly expressed his attitude before several Han officials. "After all, can we not want the tens of thousands of troops in Yan'an Prefecture?"

"That's right." The eldest prince Wanyan Wuben, sitting in the first seat, thought for a moment and shook his head helplessly. "Peace talks are impossible, so we can't show weakness to the Song people."

"I naturally know this truth." Eliduo sneered, and his anger was still hard to dissipate. "But if we let Huonv use his troops to respect himself in Hexi again and again, what is going on?! We naturally can't let go of those troops, and we have never meant to let go of them. Have we ever reduced the logistics, military pay, and rewards to Hexi by half a point? But Huonv also has to come up with an explanation, otherwise the future troubles will be even greater..."

Everyone present, from the three princes to several central clan ministers, to Wanyan Xiyin and other internal reformers, including Qin Hui, Han Fang, and Hong Ya, who had just become the chief administrator of the Metropolitan Province, almost all nodded.

Huonv had indeed crossed the line. If he was not punished, where would the authority of the central government be?

What if the Daming Prefecture followed suit? And would Balisu use this as an excuse to ask the central government for political rewards again?

However, just now, we said that Huonv's matter was not that simple... If we really wanted to solve Huonv, I am afraid that one of the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince would have to personally go to Yan'an. In this case, as long as Huonv did not have the heart to rebel, this matter would be about 70% or 80% successful.

But the problem is, who can guarantee that Huonv will not rebel? The three princes in power must also maintain a balance. Why should one of the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince give up such great power and take risks on the front line?

"I will go to see Third Brother!"

Holding the document in his hand, Wanyan Wushu thought for a moment, and then finally sighed. "Elder Brother and Third Brother continue to preside over the overall situation. The reform of the Meng'an in Hebei will be slowed down. I will personally go to Yan'an to see Huonv, and also deal with the western front war, and we must not let northern Shaanxi become a wound of the Great Jin."

The other two princes looked at each other on the spot, relieved. And below the two princes, many Jurchen nobles were a little stunned. But some Han officials were momentarily恍惚感慨.

ps: Thanks to Yun Ge's fans for the third萌, thanks to the大佬 who are waiting for the third萌... Admit the mistake, this month should be more than 130,000 words, and finally it is more than 10,000 words short. The goal of this month is completely failed.

However, I would still like to wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday.