It's July, the height of summer. The weather in the capital is getting hotter and hotter. Every morning, as soon as the sun appears, it burns everything in the city, making all the people of the capital miserable.

The heat is not the most alarming, what makes the people of the capital feel a little flustered is that the water level of several big rivers in the city, such as the Bianhe River, Jinshui River, Cai River, and Wuzhang River, is falling day by day. The scorching heat evaporates a large amount of water into the sky every day, and as the water level of the river drops, the tall boats and three-masted boats that used to flow on the river are gone. The rest are small and medium-sized boats moving slowly on the hot water. From time to time, news of a stranding will come.

The water level of the river has dropped, and the water level of the wells in the capital has also dropped rapidly. Wells have dried up in the slums north of the city. Every day, a large number of people come to the inner city with carts and buckets to fetch water. For this reason, there were endless public order incidents in the city that fought and quarreled, and more than a dozen people were killed.

Not only in the capital, but from the end of April to the beginning of July, for nearly three months, not a single drop of rain fell in the entire Gyeonggi area of the northern part of the Great Zhou. The rivers dried up, the fish and shrimp died, the large areas of land outside the capital were dried up like tortoise shells, and the wind was blowing smoke and dust everywhere, like a desert land. The place where Bianliang in the capital city is located was originally the most fertile place on the Central Henan Plain. Because there are several major water systems, the large area of Pingchou is also a huge granary, and every year, the rice produced in Gyeonggi Road alone can ensure a part of the supply of the capital. But now, because of the drought, large swaths of the seedlings are dying when they are about to reach maturity. The rice with the ears on it seemed to be still shoucheng, but as long as you reached out and stroked it, you knew that it was all deflated rice, and only the husks were left, and there were no rice grains in them. As soon as you raise your hand, these rice husks will be scattered in the air despite the hot wind.

In view of this situation, the court also immediately responded. In addition to immediately organizing manpower to find a way to divert irrigation from the Yellow River to remedy the situation and find a way to replant autumn grain, he also ordered this year's Cao Yun to be transported ahead of schedule and to urgently transfer grain from the south to Beijing. This was done in preparation for the impending famine. If the situation does not improve, then famine this winter is certain, so you need to prepare in advance.

Fortunately, there is a great drought in the north, and the weather in the south is quite normal. As long as the crop harvest in the Suhu and Hangzhou areas is guaranteed, the entire Great Zhou Empire will still be able to survive this hurdle. In fact, this is not the first time that such a drought or flood has occurred, but this time it is particularly serious.

There were some rumors in the capital, saying that there were traitors in the court, so God punished him, and the north was in a great drought. The Imperial City Division dispatched troops and horses to arrest hundreds of rumor-mongers and put them in prison in a short period of time. It also effectively curbed this rumor.

However, just when this person's heart was panicking, natural disasters struck. The court still got the biggest good news. That was a great victory at the Yanyun border.

Ever since the new emperor of Liao, Yelu Zongyuan, made unreasonable demands to the Great Zhou, demanding an increase in the annual coins and tribute, and threatening to tear up the Yanyun alliance concluded a hundred years ago, the situation in the border towns has been extremely tense. The Great Zhou Emperor Guo Chongyan was willing to be coerced by the barbarians and decided to categorically reject Yelu Zongyuan's rude demands. But if you refuse, it means that there will be strife.

The privy envoy Yang Jun said that he was not afraid of fighting, but he must have enough money, food, weapons and armor, and make all kinds of preparations for the aftermath and resettlement and bereavement. To put it bluntly, the court must prepare silver, and the battle can be fought. However, the treasury of the Great Zhou Dynasty was empty, and Yang Jun said that he would prepare three times ten thousand taels of silver for him, and perhaps more in the future, which made Guo Chong fall into a difficult choice.

At this time, Vice Prime Minister Yan Zhengsu and Cheng Fang Dunru in the Imperial History launched an impeachment of Yu Sansi Yamen. At the same time as the fall of the chief official of the Yamen of the Third Division, the imperial court obtained nearly five million taels of silver at once by confiscating the property of the offender and confiscating the illegal gains. And this money just solves the urgent need.

Guo Chong ordered an allocation of three million to Yang Jun to supervise the war on the Yanyun border. Sure enough, Yang Jun was not a false name, and he quickly started to act after taking the three million taels of silver. At the beginning of July, Yelu Zongyuan ordered the Liao soldiers and horses to attack Youzhou Mansion, hoping to teach Da Zhou a lesson and teach Da Zhou to dare to refuse his request. Yang Jun personally went to Youzhou to supervise the battle, and together with Tian Rang, the governor of Youzhou, and Li Zhengdong, the general of the Youzhou garrison, faced the Liao people at the Gaoliang River north of Youzhou. The soldiers and horses of the Liao State may never have expected that the soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou would dare to come out to meet the battle, instead of cowering in the city, and in this case, they were actually taken by surprise by the soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou. More than 5,000 of the 15,000 soldiers and horses were lost, and the rest fled.

The news of Youzhou's victory invigorated the government and the opposition, the emperor was ecstatic, and the courtiers sang praises. This battle is indeed a big morale boost, a big boost, and Guo Chong is angry. When Yang Jun returned to Beijing in triumph, Guo Chong personally led the crowd to greet him and praised him. And reward the meritorious men of this battle.

However, after the great victory, a serious problem was placed in front of the Great Zhou monarchs. Although this battle was victorious, it was equivalent to breaking the precedent of the Great Zhou and the Liao State not starting a war for a hundred years. Although the Great Zhou soldiers and horses were fighting back in self-defense, Yelu Zongyuan obviously would not give up.

If you fight again, you will not be afraid. But where will the money come from? Yang Jun won the battle by rewarding the generals and spending a lot of silver to build armor and weapons and fortifications. And in fact, this victory was not a complete victory, and more than 2,000 soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou Dynasty were killed and wounded, but no one mentioned it.

In one word: money! No money cannot solve the fundamental problem, and only with enough money and food can you argue with the Liao people, otherwise the trouble will not be solved, but may become more tricky.

In this case, Guo Chong summoned several important ministers of the court and asked them about their plans. In the end, Prime Minister Lu Zhongtian made a proposal.

Lu Zhongtian's suggestion was that since he had won a great victory in Youzhou, he should take advantage of this opportunity to show a high profile and send envoys to Liao to negotiate. Da Zhou won this battle, and it was not a shame to send people to negotiate. The Liao people have been defeated this time, if the Great Zhou shows the bearing of a great power, expresses its willingness to continue to reconcile with the Liao, and makes a slight concession on the New Year's coin, maybe the Liao people will also get off the slope.

This suggestion is deeply in line with Guo Chong's heart. This not only protects the face of the Great Zhou Dynasty, but if an agreement can be reached again, it can also avoid the subsequent crisis. If you really want to fight, you can't afford the money and food, and I'm afraid that after the victory in Youzhou, you will suffer a series of defeats.

Of course, after the victory in Youzhou, there was a shouting and killing sound from top to bottom of the court. At this time, if you do this, you may attract opposition from the courtiers. Therefore, Guo Chong had to be cautious and summoned other important ministers.

Yang Jun's attitude is still the same, it is okay to fight, and money and food must be guaranteed. If you don't have money and food to back you up, you can't guarantee that you will be able to win the battle. The money and food are in place, and it is his responsibility to win the war or not. If you are defeated, you can do whatever the emperor does. Guo Chong was scratched by what he said. However, he also understands Yang Jun's personality. Strictly speaking, Yang Jun was born as a martial artist, and his fame was given by the emperor, so if you ask him for policy advice, I am afraid that it will be in vain, if you want him to fight, he is unambiguous. Because of this, Guo Chong is more at ease with Yang Jun than anyone else.

Guo Chong summoned Yan Zhengsu and Fang Dunru to ask for opinions, but what he didn't expect was that Yan Zhengsu and Fang Dunru actually put forward the same opinion as Lu Zhongtian, and asked to accept it when they saw it and immediately stabilize the relationship between the two countries. Yan Zhengsu told Guo Chong that the current petty fights are useless, and the big victory in Youzhou will not help the overall situation. If it's for the sake of momentary anger, it will ruin the overall situation. What needs to be done now is to stabilize the situation immediately and buy time for Da Zhou. When the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty have enough food, they don't have to deal with the Liao people, and when the money and food are sufficient, the emperor can do whatever he wants, and he doesn't have to be restricted by many factors.

Fang Dunru expressed the same meaning, he used the word Taoguang Yanghui to tell Guo Chong vividly. At this moment, it is not a shame to negotiate with the Liao people, or even make concessions. It is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, in fact, the battle of Youzhou should not be fought, because it is very risky. Fortunately, he won, if he loses, and then he goes to negotiate, then the other party's nose is afraid that it will be lifted to the sky, and the weight will be too heavy to bear.

Expressing this meaning to the main ministers, Guo Chong relieved himself. So he made an edict and said, 'The old Zhou and the previous emperors of the Liao State are good friends, and the brotherhood cannot bear to be separated. I also have the virtue of being born in heaven, and I can't bear to fight with the soldiers of Zhou and Liao, and the lives are ......devastated, and I inform the ministers that they are willing to continue to maintain friendship with the Liao. And wrote a handwritten letter to send Honglu Siqing as an envoy to the Liao State to talk about repair. and ordered the soldiers and horses of the Gaoliang River north of Youzhou to withdraw twenty miles to show their sincerity. And the captured Liao soldiers were also sent back with the messenger.

Soon after the envoy arrived in Liao, he quickly brought back the good news. The Liao Emperor Yelu Zongyuan actually agreed that the two sides would continue to be friendly and maintain the alliance of Youyun. Moreover, with the exception of the bereavement money that demanded compensation from the thousands of soldiers who died in the Great Zhou, the annual figure of 300,000 coins stipulated in the previous covenant remained unchanged.

This news made Guo Chong very happy, but he didn't expect things to go so smoothly. He was ready to back down. If the other party asks for a little bit of New Year's coins, he will agree. But I didn't expect everything to remain the same. Guo Chong immediately instructed Honglu Siqing to agree to the other party's request to establish that the Yanyun Alliance was still valid. A turmoil between the two countries was resolved so dramatically.

The ministers naturally attributed all this to the wisdom and martial arts of the saints, saying that Guo Chong ordered a battle, and the great victory in Youzhou shocked the small country and let them know the power of the kingdom in the Central Plains, so they bowed their heads and did not dare to make a mistake. But soon after, inside information came that the Jurchen tribe in the northeast of Liao launched a rebellion, and Yelu Zongyuan mobilized troops and horses to quell the Jurchen rebellion. The confirmation of this news just shows why Yelu Zongyuan agreed to continue to maintain the covenant so happily, because he couldn't spare his hands, and he didn't want to fight with the Great Zhou, so he was hit by the enemy in the back and the back, so he chose to compromise.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Nine Heavenly God Emperor mobile version reading website: