Now that the covenant with the Jin people had been successfully concluded, Tong Guan would no longer stay at sea, and at the sound of the order, several ships quickly turned around and headed towards the western coast.

After two days of doing so, they finally landed again. And there have already been arrangements to receive it here, not only to control all the people around it to prevent leakage of news, but also to station an army, which is the forbidden army from Tokyo, and it is also the team that escorted Tong Guanbei into the Liao State this time. Obviously, before going to sea, Tong Guan had already arranged everything, and he didn't notice anything unusual by outsiders when he came and went, at least to ensure that this key news would not be leaked in a short period of time.

After returning to the envoy team, Tong Guan sent a team of cronies and horses to secretly send the alliance between the two countries to Bianjing. It wasn't until he had done all this that he ordered someone to play his banner, swaggering and leading more than 2,000 forbidden troops and the elite of the Qingzhou army all the way to the west, and then to the north towards the border area between the Liao and Song dynasties.

And Sun Tu and the others also saw a completely different scene from the places they had visited before. After crossing the Yellow River and entering Hebei, they saw that the lives of the people were more miserable and impoverished than any other place before, many of the people's houses were dilapidated and low, and some were even made of mud and grass, and a rain could wash away their dwellings. But even so, there are still a large number of people living on the streets, without even a place to cover their heads, and I don't know how they survived the winter.

Not only is there only a piece of tile to cover the head, but even food and shelter are also a big problem. Along the way, it seemed that most of the people were so hungry that they were skinny and skinny, and even when they saw such a large group of officers and soldiers coming, they just avoided the official road and watched in a daze. They were dressed in tatters, mostly barefoot, and I am afraid that they could not even afford a pair of straw sandals.

Sun Tu couldn't believe his eyes when he saw such a scene, how could this be in the Great Song Dynasty? Because as far as his impression goes, today's Great Song Dynasty is very wealthy, even in a remote place like Qingzhou and a small county like Yuncheng County, at least the people don't have to worry about food and clothing. And all the way here, he had already seen more than a dozen corpses lying upright on the side of the road, apparently all of them had died violently, and they were soon dragged to be buried by the local government.

"How so? With the wealth of my Great Song Dynasty, can't I take out some money and food to help the people here? Aren't those people in the court afraid that after forcing people to a dead end, the people here will rebel? Sun Tu was really full of confusion. Finally, at a reception banquet later, I asked a local petty official this question.

The one who could see that Sun Tu was a powerful cronie by Tong Guan's side, and he didn't dare to hide it too perfunctory, so he could only sigh and whisper: "General Sun, you don't know anything, this is also a helpless move." Who made this land of Hebei at the junction of the two countries? Although the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao State have not fought in a big way for a hundred years, the small-scale friction has never stopped. Every month, the Liao army will enter the territory of our Great Song Dynasty from somewhere to burn and loot, and this move is also called the grass valley.

"In fact, in the early years, the government would also compensate the people after the disaster, so that they could live and work in peace and contentment as soon as possible. But often as soon as we rebuilt their homes, the Liao people sent troops to invade again, so that most of the money and grain spent by the government fell into the hands of the Liao State

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。 Over time, we don't dare to waste money and food anymore. Moreover, where the people are doing well, they will rob them, and in this way, giving them money and food will harm them. ”

When Sun Tu heard this, his brows tightened even more. Originally, his concept of military disasters was not very clear, and it was only then that he could understand how difficult it was for the people in such a situation, and it was really possible that they could not even save their lives at any time.

But while understanding, he still said: "Even if there is such a reason, the local government can't watch the people die of hunger and cold." ”

"Actually, I've done my best. As early as many years ago, the imperial court intended to clear the wilderness, clear the north of Hebei, and divert water to irrigate the silt to resist the Liao iron cavalry. However, the local people are unable to leave their homeland and refuse to move away, and they have even had several conflicts with the government before. We were really helpless, so we could only let it go, hoping that they would not survive anymore, so they would take the initiative to leave this place. ”

Now Sun Tu really has nothing to say, the people have always relocated to the land, and they are unwilling to leave their hometown until they have to. It's just that he didn't expect the people here to be so stubborn, they are almost in a desperate situation, and they still refuse to move out of here. Perhaps, only when the Song and Liao countries officially went to war, and these people retreated with the last luck, they would be desperate to leave.

When the man turned to leave, Luda and Wu Song, who were listening on the side, sighed repeatedly.

The two of them have experienced a lot before, and they are not soft-hearted, but after seeing what happened to the people here, they are still miserable. At this time, he took the opportunity to say: "San Lang, originally we thought that it was unwise for Tong Guan to think of joining forces with the Jin people to attack the Liao State, but now it seems that there is some truth." If we can recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the people here will not have to suffer from the military disasters for many years, and they will be able to live and work here in peace and contentment. ”

"Yes, if the Great Song Dynasty can really regain a large area of land in the north and have its own land for raising horses, whether it is the Khitans or other foreign people, they will definitely be more jealous of us, and it is impossible for soldiers and horses to enter and loot at any time like now." Sun Tu also nodded in agreement.

Thinking about it this way, in fact, the strategy set by Zhao Ji and Tong Guan is not wrong. Their only fault was that they overestimated their own strength and underestimated the fierceness and ability of the Liao people, especially the Jurchens.

And the thought that in the near future such terrible scenes would be transferred from the area north of the Yellow River to the more densely populated Yangtze River, Sun Tu realized the consequences more and more serious. It's a pity that with his current status and status, it is not enough to guide the change of the national policy of the Great Song Dynasty, and in the end he can only watch the entire Northern Song Dynasty step by step into the abyss of death.

It was precisely because of such a heavy emotion that Sun Tu's interest in traveling all the way from then on was not very high, and he didn't even have the intention to pay more attention to the mountains and rivers in the north. Fortunately, after that, there were finally a few fortified cities, which allowed them to see some of the lives of the people that they should have again.

Although the people in these cities are not as rich as the south, they can still live and work in peace and contentment, and they do not have to worry about the Liao cavalry sneaking attack and killing at any time, and they can also live in a house, and they will not go hungry for two meals a day.

Tong Guan also kept a low profile at this time, and no longer frequently drank and feasted with local officials, but took a lot of time

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From time to time, I came to meet with the border army generals along the road. At this time, Sun Tu finally saw how much prestige Tong Guan had in the border army, don't look at him as just a eunuch, and was called one of the six thieves by the civil officials and later generations, but he was deeply loved by the border army soldiers, every time he arrived at a battalion, he would win bursts of cheers, and they would also specially send people to escort Tong Guan all the way to the north, until they entered the next military town, these soldiers and horses would leave without leaving.

Sun Tu and others saw it in their eyes, and their views on Tong Guan have also changed somewhat. Originally, they all thought that Tong Guan could have today's status only because he was favored by the Son of Heaven all the year round, but looking at the sincere performance of the border soldiers, they can know that he does have his own set of skills, and he must have spoken and done things for the soldiers.

After passing through several border towns one after another, this team of envoys finally arrived at the end of April, where the real Song-Liao border is located, the last key pass in the north of the Great Song Dynasty - Yanmen Pass.

This is a tall Xiongguan located between two mountains, the wall alone is more than ten zhang high, the stone wall in the north is even thicker than five or six zhang, not to mention the ordinary siege weapons of this era, it is the general artillery of later generations to bombard, in a short period of time may not be able to bombard this strong pass.

Moreover, there are tens of thousands of elite border troops stationed in this pass, although these soldiers seem to be far less strong and fierce than the forbidden army and the Qingzhou army, but Sun Tu can feel a different murderous aura from these soldiers, which is a terrible temperament that can only be forged by really experiencing life and death, and how many times can he get up from the pile of dead.

It can be said that it is precisely because of this army stationed at Yanmen Pass that the Liao State did not dare to invade the Central Plains on a large scale, and the only thing that could be done was to send a small force to attack the rear, but it could not cause too much damage to the Great Song Dynasty.

Sun Tu, who was aware of this, was naturally in awe of the defenders here, and when they stayed here, their attitudes were also very different, which also won him the favor of many soldiers here, and also made them remember this Jingdong Road soldier and horse capital who came from the south.

After arriving at Yanmen Pass, Tong Guan did not rush to continue to move forward, but sent someone to contact the Liao people in the north first, and passed on his identity as an envoy to the Liao State, waiting for the reaction from there.

Then, they stayed in the area of Yanmen Pass temporarily, and Sun Tu also took the opportunity to go to the place outside the pass, and paid a tribute to the Great Song Dynasty hero who fought and died here, and the big hero who actually did not exist, but did not hesitate to commit suicide for the peace of the two countries - that's right, that is the king of the Southern Courtyard of the Liao State, the former leader of the Song State Beggar Gang, Xiao Feng and Xiao Daxia.

Although there can be no chaotic stone forest here, and there is no stone wall carved by Xiao Yuanshan with his bare hands before jumping off the cliff, standing outside the Yanmen Pass and feeling the ups and downs here, it is inevitable that Sun Tu will think of the heroes in this story.

I stayed here for several days, and it was not until the Dragon Boat Festival that the Liao State finally had a reply and allowed the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty to enter the country. However, they also made a request that the number of Song people entering the country this time should not exceed 1,000!

In this regard, although some people were dissatisfied, Tong Guan didn't take it to heart and quickly responded.

So on the seventh day of the first month of May, the mission team went north again and really stepped into the territory of Liao. The Qingzhou Army, as one of the guards, left most of them at Yanmen Pass, with only 200 people accompanying them.

(End of chapter)

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