11. Mongol Envoys (I)

Not three days after sending off the envoys of the Jin State, the Great Song Dynasty court received a letter of state from Mongolia, and it turned out that Mongolia had sent Yelu Chucai and Zaba'er Huozhi as the chief and deputy envoys to the Great Song Dynasty to discuss the matters of the two countries jointly dealing with the Jin State.

After Zhao Chen received the letter from Mongolia, he also felt a little funny, he couldn't imagine that the envoy of Jinyuan had just left, and the envoy of Mongolia had arrived again, which was simply the front and back feet. At the same time, I am also more aware that the current general trend of the world is indeed the tripartite tripartite of Song, Jinmeng and indispensable. Therefore, Zhao Chen immediately summoned the ruling ministers in the Rui Si Hall to discuss why the Mongolian envoys suddenly came to Jiankang.

Because Yang Yan was the most familiar with the situation in Mongolia among the officials of the Great Song Dynasty, and the matter of dealing with the Jin State was also mentioned in the Mongolian national letter, which also belonged to the military scope, Yang Yan was also able to participate in this discussion.

The ministers unanimously agreed that after the failure of the Mongol three-way army to defeat Jin this time, they also understood that the strength of the Mongols alone was not enough to compete with the Jin State, so they sent envoys, hoping to reach an agreement with the Great Song Dynasty to jointly deal with the Jin State. Or maybe you want to get some assistance from Da Song. You might as well take the Mongol envoys first and see what they have to say.

Although the Great Song Dynasty has the initial intention of accepting the Jin State to redeem the lost territory with silver money, the two countries have not yet signed a formal agreement, and secondly, there are too many examples of the Jin State betraying the alliance in the past, who knows if this time it is another set of the Jin State. Therefore, the country of Jin cannot be fully trusted until the agreement is actually fulfilled. At this time, Song and Mongolia still have to maintain the state of alliance to prevent accidents.

So Zhao Chen immediately issued an order, and Honglu Temple still received Mongolian envoys according to the previous specifications.

But at this time, Yang Yan said: "Ladies and gentlemen, have you noticed, there are two things that are different from the previous ones when Mongolia sent the mission this time. Xia Guan felt that he could not ignore it. ”

Zhao Chen said: "Yang Qing, you are here to talk about it, what is different from before?" ”

Yang Yan said: "Back to Your Majesty, first of all, the candidate for the envoy, before Mongolia was all based on the Zaba'er fire, but now it has been replaced by Yelu Chucai, and the Zaba'er firefighter only serves as the deputy envoy." Who is this Yelu Chucai, I have never heard of him before. ”

When other people heard Yang Yan say this, they also felt that there was indeed something strange, generally speaking, neighbors who are really in alliance usually designate a person as an envoy for a long time, because there are more contacts, and they are also familiar with the road, and it is more convenient to talk.

Zaba'er Huozhi has been sent to the Great Song Dynasty many times, and has basically successfully completed the task, and has a certain friendship with many officials of the Great Song Dynasty, and under normal circumstances, it should not be replaced. Of course, there are some other situations, and it is not impossible for another person to be selected. But it would be a bit abnormal to change the envoy and let the former envoy serve as the deputy envoy. It can only explain one problem, the status and role of Yelu Chucai in Mongolia surpassed that of Zabal Fire. So where is this Yelu Chucai sacred?

Although Song Meng is now in the state of the alliance, the phrase "knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent, and not being defeated in a hundred battles" can be applied there, so Zhao Chen nodded and said: "Yang Qing, go and check the origin of this Yelu Chucai." So what's the second point? ”

Yang Yan said: "Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen, you see that this country of Mongolia seems to be very different from the past. ”

Zhao Chen listened, and then noticed that the language of the national letter sent by Mongolia before this was vulgar, and it could only express the meaning clearly, and it was not a literary style. And the national letter of Mongolia is indeed written elegantly, beautifully, and magnificently. It was only written by any scribe of the Great Song Dynasty, and it was nothing more than that. At first glance, you can see that it must have been written by a well-educated person. Could it be that it is from the hand of this Yelu Chucai?

Although it is not yet possible to confirm what impact these two differences will have on Song-Mongolian relations, Zhao Chen also realized that he could not be despised by the Mongolian envoys this time, so he thought for a while and said: "Yang Qing, among the ministers of the Great Song Dynasty, you know the situation in Mongolia best, so it is up to you to receive the Mongolian envoys and see what their goals are." ”

Yang Yan hurriedly said: "The minister's will." ”

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The next day, Yang Yan and Zhang Gongdan, the head of Honglu Temple, arrived to greet the Mongolian envoys. After the two sides met, the two sides were introduced to each other.

Yang Yan saw Yelu Chucai's majestic posture, long beard over his chest, his face like a crown of jade, long eyebrows and sideburns, and his bearing was extraordinary. It seems that it is no accident that he was able to replace the Zaba'er Fire Lord.

And Yelu Chucai had already heard of Yang Yan's name when he was idle in the Jin Kingdom, and although his time in Mongolia was not long, the Mongolian generals from Tie Shuzhen to Mu Huali, Borshu, Jebe, Subutai and other Mongolian generals admired Yang Yan very much, and their hearts were naturally full of curiosity about him.

When he first saw Yang Yan, Yelu Chucai only felt that he looked younger than his actual age, but he was of medium stature and ordinary appearance, and he did not look like a contemporary famous general who commanded thousands of troops and horses.

Since Yang Yan is serving the Mongolian mission today, so he changed into a set of scribe's clothes, and it seems that he has tried his best to finally pass the imperial examination and become a jinshi, and it seems that he can immediately become an official, but because of his own lack of qualifications, he can only be a parasitic official, waiting for a laissez-faire young bureaucrat, and his future achievements will be at most the governor of a state capital, and then slowly boil to the appearance of Zhishi. And only through careful observation can the occasional flash of light in Yang Yan's eyes make Yelu Chucai feel that the old saying "people can't look good" is too reasonable.

After the two sides made a cold announcement, Yelu Chucai first spoke: "Mongolia, the Great Song Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom all have a common enmity, but now the Jin State is huge, and it is not easy for one side to destroy it, so the joint destruction of Jin by Mongolia and the Great Song Dynasty and sincere cooperation are of great benefit to both sides." ”

Yang Yan also said: "What Mr. Yelu said is that last year, the Great Song Dynasty and the Mongol coalition army destroyed the Western Xia, and he fought side by side with Temujin and the Mongol generals. ”

Yelu Chucai said: "Therefore, we should act in unison against the Jin State in Mongolia and Song, and at the same time use troops from the north and south to make the Jin State suffer from the enemy, so that we can avenge the revenge of both sides." That's why my Khan thought that our two countries should come to an agreement on sending troops. ”

Yang Yan said: "It's very good that Temujin Khan has such an idea, and my Great Song Dynasty also fully agrees with the unanimous precession of the two sides, otherwise it will only allow the Jin State to be broken one by one, but the Great Song Dynasty still needs time to recover its national strength, and it is impossible to launch a full-scale attack on the Jin State in the short term, so it is impossible to agree with Mongolia on the date of sending troops now, please forgive Mr. Yelu." ”

Yelu Chucai nodded and said: "Soldiers, the major affairs of the country must be acted carefully, the Great Song Dynasty has difficulties, and Chu Cai also knows this." ”

Yang Yan said: "During this period, my Great Song Dynasty may still interact with the Jin State, temporarily stabilize the Jin State, so as to get time to recover the national strength, so if Mongolia hears any rumors, do not misunderstand, and ask Mr. Yelu to explain to the Great Khan of Temujin after he returns." The enmity between the Great Song Dynasty and the Jin State is not the same as the sky, once we are fully prepared, we will definitely notify the Mongols to jointly use troops to attack the Jin State. ”

Yelu Chucai pondered for a while before he said, "So if during this period of time, the Jin State attacks Mongolia, then what should the Great Song Dynasty do?" ”

Yang Yan said: "Sir, please rest assured, the Song and Mongolia are indispensable, once the Jin State raises troops to attack Mongolia, my Great Song Dynasty will never sit idly by, and will definitely send troops from the south to contain the Jin State." ”

Only then did Yelu Chucai smile and said, "This is very good, and we in Mongolia can also make the same promise to the Great Song Dynasty." Once the Jin State sends troops to attack the Song Dynasty, it will definitely send troops from the north to contain the Jin State. ”

The two of them glanced at each other and laughed in unison.

After laughing, Yelu Chucai said: "Then let's discuss how to distribute the land of the Jin country if the Jin country is destroyed in the future." ”

Yang Yan's eyes flashed, it seemed that this was the true purpose of the Mongolian delegation to the Great Song Dynasty. So he first asked, "I don't know if Mongolia wants to get those lands of the Jin Kingdom." ”

Yelu Chucai smiled slightly, and said: "We Mongolia have no greed for the land we have acquired, we only want to take it in the right way, and once the war starts, the Great Song Dynasty will go from south to north, and Mongolia will go from north to south, and they will not interfere with each other, so the land taken by that side will be owned by that side, which is also fair and reasonable, and how much land can be obtained depends only on their own ability." ”

Yang Yan said categorically: "No, such a division, my Great Song Dynasty will never accept it." My Great Song Dynasty is not greedy for the land of the Jin State, and only wants to recover all the lost land in the past, as well as the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures that lost the Liao State back then, in addition, my Great Song Dynasty has no extravagant demand for other lands of the Jin State, and let you Mongolia take it. ”

Because the reconquest of the lost territories and the places of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were the ultimate goals pursued by the Great Song Dynasty, and Hebei, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and other places were close to the Jinmeng border, if they followed the Mongol proposal, their chances of seizing these lands were far greater than those of the Great Song Dynasty. In this way, the final result of the Great Song Dynasty may be limited to the Yellow River Valley, so such a distribution method is naturally unacceptable to the Great Song Dynasty.

Listening to Yang Yan's words, Yelu Chucai smiled faintly again, and said: "If according to what the horse said, almost all the places where my Mongolian army went south are the homeland of the Great Song Dynasty, then what good is it for me to send troops from Mongolia, isn't it all for the Great Song Dynasty?" ”

Yang Yan said: "Mr. Yelu's words are wrong, Mr. Xia Suwen is familiar with historical events, so he should naturally know that since ancient times, there are north and south, and the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Hebei were originally the homeland of my Great Song Dynasty, and Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures and other places have been the land of our Han people since ancient times. ”