Chapter 198: Peace Negotiations

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After Zhang Jie and Lu Huiqing led over two hundred thousand troops to approach Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia, they did not rush to attack this fortress the Western Xia would surely defend to the death; instead, they dispatched troops to encircle Xingqing Prefecture while redirecting forces to secure all roads connecting the Song Chaoting to Lingzhou City, simultaneously mobilizing troops to sweep through the remaining Western Xia territories, reinforce Lingzhou City, and transport grain and supplies into Lingzhou.

Did Zhang Jie and Lu Huiqing refrain from immediately attacking Xingqing Prefecture because the Song army could not take it?

Of course not.

With the Song army's current momentum and their supply of explosive packs, if they launched an all-out assault, they would most likely still breach Xingqing Prefecture.

But the problem was, once the Western Xia froze Xingqing Prefecture solid, attacking this fortress during the bitter winter would expose the Song army to massive casualties and losses from the desperate counterattacks of hundreds of thousands of Western Xia troops.

Yet if they merely besieged without attacking, the hundreds of thousands of mouths inside Xingqing Prefecture would run out of grain within three months at most.

Even if they did not run out of grain, once spring arrived and the weather warmed, capturing Xingqing Prefecture would be a matter of days.

In short, though holding overwhelming advantage, Zhang Jie and Lu Huiqing responded with extreme calmness: first they dispatched large forces to seize Yingli and Xiazhou, then easily captured Jishizhou and Xining.

By December, the Song army had yet to capture only one territory left in Western Xia—Ducheng, Xingqing Prefecture.

While fighting, Zhang Jie and Lu Huiqing also learned from Western Xia's persistent refusal to fully submit to the Central Plains dynasties and summarized the success of the Longyou Protectorate; they slaughtered every man among Western Xia's high officials, scholar-gentry, wealthy clans, and merchant magnates, sent their women to brothels, freed their slaves, treated the common people—the largest demographic in the region—with leniency, opened granaries to distribute grain, redistributed land, and granted Western Xia commoners and slaves the daughters of Western Xia nobles as rewards for their service.

The Song Chaoting had long prepared thoroughly for the reconquest of Western Xia. As soon as Song troops entered Western Xia, thousands of capable, ambitious, and idealistic Song officials followed, taking control of this new territory according to strategies they had studied and deliberated for years, governing it with the intent to transform it permanently into an inseparable part of the Song Chaoting.

Moreover, the Song Chaoting had already begun relocating three million Han civilians to Western Xia in regions with heavy refugee populations, offering incentives such as land allotment, housing, three years of tax exemption, travel expenses, and food and lodging.

By December, the northwest had turned bitterly cold, and the first heavy snowfall had descended.

Fortunately, to reclaim Western Xia, the Song Chaoting had long prepared hundreds of thousands of cotton-padded robes, ample quilts, and tents for the Western Army.

Crucially, the Song army had already seized all Western Xia territory except Xingqing Prefecture, securing sufficient shelter and food.

More crucially, due to the Song Chaoting's policies that greatly favored Western Xia's commoners and slaves, they gained widespread support from Western Xia civilians and slaves, giving the Song Chaoting a solid popular base that would help the Song army survive the winter.

As for Li Qianshun and his ministers, along with the Western Xia royal family, even with only this final city remaining, they clenched their teeth and fought to the last, refusing absolutely to surrender.

To demonstrate their resolve, as early as late November, Li Qianshun ordered the entire city's population to freeze Xingqing Prefecture solid, making it clear they intended to endure to the end against the Song army.

This was understandable.

The Li Shi of Western Xia knew well how much damage and loss they had inflicted upon the Song Chaoting over the past century.

Without exaggeration, since Li Jiyuan's rebellion against the Song, Western Xia had hung like a sharp blade over the Song Chaoting's throat, leaving every successive Song emperor unable to sleep at night or enjoy their meals.

For a hundred years, the Song Chaoting had annually poured vast sums of its treasury into defending against Western Xia invasions—so much so that nearly half or more of the state's tax revenue was consumed, stalling development in the Central Plains, burdening the people, and frequently emptying the imperial coffers.

This was not merely an economic burden but a spiritual torment: countless families shattered by war, countless youths vanished in the border beacon fires, leaving only endless longing and sorrow.

Moreover, Western Xia almost every year raided the Song Chaoting to plunder grain and livestock; each raid felt like carving flesh from the Song Chaoting's heart, making the Central Plains people hate Western Xia with unquenchable fury.

This hatred burned like oil poured onto fire, enduring without ceasing, passed down through generations.

Li Qianshun knew that if they surrendered, they would face endless humiliation and retribution; their families and their nation would be utterly erased from the annals of history.

Thus, despite Xingqing Prefecture being tightly encircled, with dwindling supplies and declining morale, Li Qianshun and his ministers still clung to a sliver of hope, waiting for a miracle.

To this end, Li Qianshun and his ministers had gathered all resources within the city, imposed strict rationing, armed everyone, organized them into military units, and enforced rigid militarized control.

Fearing the populace might break, Li Qianshun and his ministers told them that Liao and Western Xia shared a relationship of mutual dependence—when one perishes, the other follows—and that the Liao state would surely send a large army to rescue Western Xia.

Though the city's soldiers and civilians resented Li Qianshun and his ministers for their stubborn resistance, they could only endure silently, for their fates were now inextricably bound to the crumbling Western Xia dynasty.

Notably, Li Qianshun and his ministers continued to hold out because they had received a crucial piece of news—Zhang Jie, the Song army's commander-in-chief, was ill.

Zhang Jie was simply too old; even before launching the campaign against Western Xia, he had sensed his end was near.

To be honest, had he not felt his time was running out, Zhang Jie's usual caution might have led him to avoid such an aggressive strategy. Had he been several years younger, he would likely have continued the steady, winnable strategy of gradual encroachment and fortification to slowly consume Western Xia, rather than risking everything—even the fate of the state—in this inevitable life-or-death gamble.

Fortunately, heaven still favored this most formidable scholar-general of the Song Chaoting, sparing him from failure in his final battle.

Precisely because Zhang Jie had spent his life being cautious, Li Qianshun and his ministers, who believed they had thoroughly understood him, never anticipated that at this most critical moment, Zhang Jie would abandon his cautious tactics entirely, adopting a wildly aggressive strategy of feint and deception to utterly crush Western Xia.

Regardless, Zhang Jie had won this decisive battle, reclaiming Western Xia for the Song Chaoting after nearly a century of loss, becoming the minister with the greatest military achievements in Song history.

In this final stage of his life, Zhang Jie continued calmly demanding that all personnel strictly follow the policies they had discussed countless times to take control of Western Xia.

By mid-December, Zhang Jie was too ill to leave his bed.

Lu Huiqing and others urged Zhang Jie to return to Dongjing or travel south to recuperate, but Zhang Jie refused.

Zhang Jie told Lu Huiqing: "My time has come; no such effort is needed. Dying here is my best destiny. Western Xia is the culmination of my lifelong campaigns, the peak of my glory. I, Zhang Jie, never sought fame among the feudal lords—I only wished to be wrapped in horsehide and returned to the earth. Now my wish is fulfilled; I die without regret."

Then Zhang Jie told Lu Huiqing: "The Li Shi are arrogant, treacherous, obstinate, and unyielding—they must not be spared. Remember this: even if the Xia Zhu opens the gates to surrender, you must exterminate every high official, scholar-gentry, wealthy clan, and merchant magnate. Do not leave behind a single threat to our Great Song."

Lu Huiqing held the same view, so he unhesitatingly agreed.

At the end of December in Hongwu Year Two, Zhang Jie died in Lingzhou City at the age of seventy-six.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu burst into tears and cried: "My Zhuge Liang is gone!" He then issued an imperial decree bestowing upon Zhang Jie the posthumous title of Grand Tutor and Commandery Prince of Guangyang, with the honorific posthumous name "Zhuang Min," and ordered Lu Huiqing to transport Zhang Jie's remains to the imperial mausoleum for burial, with the court observing state funeral rites.

After Zhang Jie's death, Lu Huiqing assumed the post of Pacification Commissioner of Shaanxi and Western Xia, continuing to govern the Six Roads of Shaanxi and Western Xia, and to complete the reconquest of Western Xia…

…

Let us rewind to early November.

After the Liao state delivered the interest on its annual tribute—in horses, cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys, and mules—and given that Liao troops had previously raided Zhao Yu's imperial encampment, the Zhai Palace was no longer safe; Zhao Yu decided to withdraw to the Xiongzhou Imperial Palace.

This was also the view of Guo Cheng and other generals.

In their eyes, Zhao Yu was the Song army's greatest vulnerability and the Liao state's only chance to turn the tide; once Zhao Yu retreated to Xiongzhou, the Song Chaoting would have decisively won the war.

Zhao Yu was famously obedient to advice.

Moreover, a gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall; a wise man does not linger in a collapsing nest. Knowing full well that staying in Yan territory posed danger, and seeing no necessity to remain there, why should Zhao Yu insist on placing himself in peril?

Learning that Zhao Yu was withdrawing to Xiongzhou, Yelu Yanxi and his ministers breathed a sigh of relief.

This indicated that Zhao Yu had no intention of attacking the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun or the Sanzhou region of Pingluan.

Yelu Yanxi immediately sent Zhao Yu lavish gifts: ginseng, deer antlers, sable furs, dried venison, frozen fruits, chrysanthemum wine, as well as falcons, jade artifacts, and inkstones—all to ensure Zhao Yu departed without delay.

Moreover, after deliberation, Yelu Yanxi and his ministers decided to bestow upon Zhao Yu the honorific title: "Successor of Heaven's Mandate, Unifier of the Universe, Manifestor of Virtue and Merit, Cultivator of Benevolence and Trust, Restorer of Letters and Martial Glory, Glorious Holy Emperor."

It was said that some Liao ministers fiercely opposed this, arguing that such an exalted title would inflate Zhao Yu's prestige. Yelu Yanxi and Xiao Fengxian deemed these men foolish and inflexible, and angrily dismissed them all.

In short, as long as Zhao Yu would "leave," allowing the Liao state to escape this disaster, Yelu Yanxi and his ministers were willing to pay any price.

Zhao Yu knew that if he refused Yelu Yanxi and his ministers' "kindness," they would never rest easy.

Therefore, no matter what fine gifts Yelu Yanxi and his ministers offered him, Zhao Yu accepted them all, making it his policy to never turn away any offering.

Just as Zhao Yu withdrew back to Xiongzhou, thirteen hundred thousand taels of gold and nine million five hundred thousand taels of silver, shipped from Liao's Zhongjing, arrived in Yanjing.

However, Yelu Yanxi and his ministers did not deliver these gold and silver immediately. They knew that paying the annual tribute and interest was merely a prerequisite for peace negotiations, not the terms themselves. In their view, if they handed over all the tribute, Liao would lose its final bargaining chip in negotiations with the Zhao Song dynasty and be left entirely at Zhao Yu's mercy.

Just as Yelu Yanxi and his ministers were basking in the pride of their clever maneuver and trembling with fear that the Song army might launch a punitive expedition, an urgent eight-hundred-li courier request for aid from Western Xia arrived in Yanjing.

To His Imperial Majesty, Emperor of the Great Liao:

Your humble servant, Li Qianshun, prostrates himself in the dust, pleading with blood and tears: The calamity brought by the Song bandits is worse than tigers and wolves! From beyond Yumen Pass, they marched westward, capturing our Xia's Heishuicheng, Sha and Gua prefectures. Wherever the Song troops passed, farmlands turned to ash, Buddhist temples became ruins, and nine out of ten Xiangtang households were emptied; wailing birds filled the skies. Now their spearhead points directly at the Helan Mountains, and their iron cavalry have already knocked at the northern gate of Xingqing Prefecture. The ancestral temples and state of Western Xia hang by a thread!

Your Majesty must know: Zhao Yu's ambition extends far beyond Hexi alone. He has long cherished the dream of restoring the Han and Tang dynasties' former territories. If Western Xia falls, Liao will suffer the fate of lips gone, teeth chilled. The former Han and Tang lands—from Youyan to Hexi—are all coveted by the Song bandits. Today, our Xia state serves as Liao's western shield; if this shield collapses, the Song bandits' cavalry will pour eastward from the Hetao region, strike directly at Yunzhong, and Liao will be caught between two enemies—how will you defend yourselves?

Recall the past: Liao and Xia swore blood oaths, intermarried across generations, bound as brothers. Now I beg, with the full strength of our nation, that Your Majesty dispatch the elite forces of Yanjing and raise the armies of Mobei to strike the Song bandits from east and west. If Your Majesty lends aid, I vow that after victory, we shall cede the fertile Hetao lands as pasture for Liao's horses, pay annual tribute of one hundred thousand shi of blue salt and five thousand fine horses, forever serving as your vassal, observing the rites of a subject state.

This is not merely about the survival of Western Xia—it is about securing the hundred-year foundation of Liao and Xia! If you sit idly by while Western Xia perishes, when the Song bandits turn their attention to you, Liao will stand alone, unable to withstand them—and you will regret it too late! In haste, I submit this plea, humbly begging Your Majesty to take heed!

Li Qianshun bows his head a second time!

The third day of the eleventh month, the second year of Gantong.

Upon receiving Li Qianshun's plea, Yelu Yanxi was stunned; the letter in his hand felt like a burning sweet potato, leaving him paralyzed. His eyes widened, his lips trembled slightly, as if he beheld the dim future of Liao. In the court, ministers exchanged uneasy glances, murmuring among themselves—the atmosphere turned tense at once.

"Your Majesty, if Western Xia falls, our Great Liao is doomed!" said Yelu Heluowan.

"Even so, can our Great Liao possibly send troops to rescue them?" asked Xiao Fengxian calmly.

Yelu Heluowan fell silent.

The Song-Xia war was, at its core, a product of Song-Liao rivalry. All along, Liao had never withheld support for Western Xia, always using it to contain and exhaust the Zhao Song dynasty.

If possible, Liao would gladly rescue Western Xia, letting it continue bleeding Zhao Song dry until the Song dynasty was utterly drained—then Liao could swoop southward to achieve unification, or at least maintain its security indefinitely.

But the problem is: Zhao Yu now commands hundreds of thousands of troops, watching like a tiger. If Liao dares to send a large army to rescue Western Xia, Zhao Yu will unhesitatingly seize Liao's Yan-Yun Sixteen Prefectures and the Pingluan Three Prefectures.

At that point, stripped of its primary economic, grain, and strategic strongholds, Liao would be unable to escape annihilation.

Between two evils, choose the lesser.

If Zhao Song first destroys Western Xia, it will take years to fully absorb Western Xia and recover the strength it expended fighting it—giving Liao boundless opportunity.

But if, to rescue Western Xia, we lose the Yan-Yun Sixteen Prefectures, Liao will immediately plunge into total decline—and likely perish soon after.

Sacrifice Liao to save Western Xia?

What nonsense?!

The only course now is: father dies, mother remarries—each looks out for himself.

Yelu Yanxi and his ministers prayed that Western Xia could hold out on its own, and by no means let Zhao Song destroy it. Even if Western Xia fell, they prayed it would hold out as long as possible, draining Zhao Song's strength and buying Liao more time.

But reality proved Yelu Yanxi and his ministers' prayers utterly futile.

Just over two months later, Liao received word: Song troops had seized most of Western Xia's territory, besieged Xingqing Prefecture, and Western Xia's fall was imminent.

During this period, Liao received dozens of appeals for aid from Western Xia.

Each appeal was more heart-wrenching than the last.

Moreover, some of these pleas were written by Yelu Nanxian.

Without exaggeration, Li Qianshun and Yelu Nanxian had explained the relationship among Song, Liao, and Western Xia with perfect clarity, and had pleaded their case with the utmost sincerity.

Finally, Li Qianshun even offered: if Liao would send troops to rescue Western Xia and spare it from annihilation, Western Xia would be fully annexed into the Liao dynasty, becoming an inseparable part of it.

Yelu Yanxi and his ministers, upon reading these pleas, felt a complex mix of emotions—like rabbits mourning the fox's death.

Yet even so, Yelu Yanxi and his ministers sent not a single soldier to rescue Western Xia.

It was not that they did not want to—they simply could not. Could they really sacrifice Liao itself to save Western Xia?

There was no choice: let the friend die, not the poor man.

Of course, during this time, Liao did not do nothing.

Through the collective efforts of the entire Liao realm, they finally repaid all outstanding tribute and interest owed to the Zhao Song dynasty.

The Song and Liao could now negotiate peace…

…

(End of Chapter)