One Piece of Song Dynasty

The smuggling trade on the Song-Xia border has a long history. It can be said that the smuggling trade continued from the founding of the Xia Kingdom to the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty. The smugglers were not only businessmen, but also included Xixia diplomats, border officials of the Song Dynasty, border guards, and border guards. Household etc. Smuggled goods include horses, salt, weapons, currency, people, etc. Smuggling activities played an important role in Xixia's economic life. There are many reasons for smuggling. The main reason is that the Xixia economy is underdeveloped and has a strong economic dependence on the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty often closed normal trade channels such as forging markets, which also promoted the prevalence of smuggling activities. Of course, some contraband It can only be obtained through smuggling. After all, capital is profit-driven. As long as the profit is large enough, capitalists will take risks.

Most of the smugglers were backed by officials from the Xixia court. This was one of the reasons why Li Renxiao did not dare to crack down on smuggling. On the one hand, smuggling could supplement the Xia Kingdom's urgently needed commodities, but on the other hand, cracking down on smuggling might endanger the Xia Kingdom. However, now that the Tang Dynasty is willing to expand trade, the importance of smuggling has dropped a lot. In this way, although Li Renxiao cannot crack down on smuggling, the effect of cracking down on smuggling in the Tang Dynasty is the same. Li Renxiao is happy in his heart I saw that Datang cracked down on smuggling. After all, smuggling does not require taxes, while official business trade requires taxes.

Thinking of this, Li Renxiao said: "This matter has been settled. Inform all the merchants in our country. As for how to decide, it is their own business. Now I want to talk to you about the war horses. I want to include the war horses." to trade with the Tang Dynasty."

Ren Dejing said in shock: "Your Majesty, this must not be done. War horses are strategic materials. If they are included in the official trade with the Tang Dynasty, wouldn't this increase the cavalry strength of the Tang army? Although there will be no war between our country and the Tang Dynasty at present, It’ll be hard to say in a few years.”

Li Renxiao sighed: "Everyone, I have no choice but to let go of the war horse trade. Now in the trade with the Tang Dynasty, we need more goods from the Tang Dynasty, but we can provide less goods to the Tang Dynasty. Besides, Now that the Tang Dynasty has occupied the sixteen states of Yanyun, there is no shortage of land for horse breeding. According to the news from the Yanjing envoy, Li Xinguang captured more than horses during the Northern Expedition. Later, he negotiated peace with the Kingdom of Jin, and the Kingdom of Jin wanted to exchange The Jurchen captives gave the Tang Dynasty another war horses. In the Tang-Jin peace talks, the Tang Dynasty would provide the Jin Kingdom with pieces of silk every year in exchange for war horses. In addition, Li Xin's Northern Expedition seemed to have used a lot of money. The young cavalry, I just don’t know where Li Xin got so many war horses. If this continues, the Tang Dynasty will not be short of war horses in a few years. Moreover, according to the news from the Jin Kingdom, they seem to be ready to relax their control of the Tang Dynasty. The war horse trade, even if we don’t let it go, Datang can still get war horses from the Jin Kingdom, so there is no point in banning the war horse trade with Datang now.”

Privy Councilor Su Zhili agreed: "Your Majesty is right, I second my opinion."

Brother Cha also nodded and said: "I also agree, but the training of cavalry will be strengthened in the future. Since the Tang Dynasty has no shortage of war horses, then if a conflict breaks out with the Tang Dynasty in the future, cavalry battles will be inevitable. In the past, the Song Dynasty lacked war horses. The cavalry still has an advantage. In the future, there will be no shortage of war horses in the Tang Dynasty, so our cavalry will no longer be the dominant force, and everyone will have to rely on their own abilities."

Li Renxiao took out another piece of paper and said: "Uncle Emperor, I have another letter here, which was also sent back in advance by the envoy from Yanjing. There are two pieces of news in it. One is about Yelu Yuliyan, the eldest daughter of the former Emperor of Liao Dynasty. Now she is the imperial concubine of the Tang Dynasty, and Xiao Qing, the former right minister of the Great Jin Dynasty, has now become the counselor of the Tang Dynasty, and there is another news that I think the emperor's uncle will be very interested in. "

Brother Cha took the letter suspiciously, and Su Zhili said: "The former eldest princess of Liao Dynasty became the imperial concubine of Tang Dynasty. Li Xin announcing this news now is like stabbing the Jin Kingdom again. The Khitan people in the Jin Kingdom will listen It is impossible to take any action upon hearing this news. It seems that the domestic situation in the Jin Kingdom may change. Your Majesty, we also need to make some preparations. There are also some Khitans who escaped from the Liao-Jin War living in our country. They heard that When the news comes out, he will flee to the Tang Dynasty."

Brother Cha on the side was shocked after reading the letter: "What, Liu Fa is still alive, this is impossible."

Everyone was shocked by Brother Cha's words, and Li Renxiao said: "Uncle, this is true. Not only is Liu Fa still alive, but his position in the Tang army is second only to Li Xin. It's just that Liu Fa's legs are broken. That’s all.”

Brother Cha calmed down and smiled bitterly: "Then it seems that we were all deceived at the beginning. The corpse in the general uniform was not Liu Fa at all. Liu Fa was rescued by someone who had changed his position, and the person who rescued Liu Fa should be Li If he is sent by Xin, then many of the previous mysteries can be explained."

Li Renxiao nodded and said: "Yes, at first we still couldn't figure out why Wu Jie was only the deputy governor of the West Road Governor's Mansion, but there was no news about the governor of the West Road Governor's Mansion. Now it seems that Liu Fa was the governor of the West Road Governor's Mansion. It’s just that Li Xin keeps confidentiality very strictly, so we didn’t get any information.”

Brother Cha said: "Then it makes sense that Li Xin was able to quickly suppress the arrogant and powerful generals of the Western Army of the Song Dynasty after taking over the Song Dynasty. With Liu Fa, a famous general of the Western Army who can be as famous as Zhong Shidao, those generals How dare you make a mistake, but Liu Fa should be almost seventy years old now."

Li Renxiao sighed: "Yes, but uncle Huang, you are not young anymore."

Brother Cha smiled bitterly and said: "Yes, the old minister is almost sixty years old this year, we are all old."

Li Renxiao asked: "Now that the emperor has learned that his old enemy is still alive, he doesn't know what his plans are."

Brother Cha shook his head and said: "I don't know, I still admire Liu Fachen. To be honest, if it weren't for the internal reasons of the Song Army, it would be hard to say that the war ministers in Tong'an City would have any absolute confidence in defeating Liu Fachen. But now that we are all old, There will be no war between our country and the Tang Dynasty in at least the next few years, so it is hard to say whether we will still have a chance to fight. However, since Liu Fa is now second only to Li Xin in the Tang army, our country must prepare in advance. , because Liu Fa will definitely study our country as one of his enemies."

Ren Dejing echoed: "Your Majesty, the prince is right. Since Li Xin relies on Liu Fa, no matter what happens now, Li Xin is likely to regard our country as an enemy in the future, and we have to guard against it."

Li Renxiao nodded and said: "Then the emperor's uncle won't have any leisure time. Li Xin has Liu Fa, but I have to rely on the emperor's uncle."

Brother Cha cupped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will do my best to plan for my Daxia."

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