When approaching Pingxia City, they threw out the hay first. Imagine: No matter how deep and wide the trench dug by the Song army, what is the situation if more than 100,000 bundles of hay are thrown down? At least the ditch in a certain area was filled in an instant...

When the two armies were engaged in battle, the situation quickly developed in the direction expected by the Xixia people. No matter how brave the Song army was, the proportion of the number was placed there. Even if the 80,000 troops gathered by Zhang Yu were placed on the front line, it was not enough. The opponent used more than 100,000 for the first charge. It didn't take long for the Song army to break through, and the entire army was pressed towards the city gate...

When the crisis comes, if you hide in the city, the disastrous defeat in Yongle City will reappear: the Xixia people stationed outside the city with absolute strength, and the Song army has only one way to die! Considering that Zhang Yu had already gathered allied forces in the northwest to fight, it was impossible to quickly organize the second wave of rescue teams, no matter how you look at it, you cannot avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of Yongle City...

At the critical moment, a legend appeared. There were great legendary surnames in the Western Army of the 100th anniversary of the Song Dynasty: one surname, another surname Yao. The Yao family army finally made its mark in the Battle of Pingxia City! The second generation of the Yao family army, Yao Xiong, son of Yao Yi!

Yao Xiong is very famous in the Xihe Army, but unfortunately he has been fighting abroad for many years with Xihe Army. He has few local achievements, so no one knows him. It doesn’t matter. Wolves eat meat when they travel thousands of miles, and they get blood everywhere they go. The more they get critical, the more they can create legends!

More than 100,000 Xixia people rushed up, and Yao Xiong brought 7,000 Yao family troops to counterattack! When he appeared, groups of Xixia people had rushed to the city wall and were using shovels to destroy the city. The situation was no longer bad. As the city wall was about to collapse, the entire line collapsed... Yao Xiong ignored the city wall, and rushed into the trench. The area where the area where the hay was initially filled was a gap for the Xixia people to increase its troops. He wanted to block here and cut off the Xixia people's support troops!

There is no more critical point than this, nor is there a more dangerous location than this! Yao Xiong was suddenly trapped in the vortex of the Xixia people, with only 7,000 people, and he could be swallowed up by the enemy troops who rushed in at any time, not to mention that the Xixia people who were sieging the city could turn around and fight back at any time. No one could understand why he chose this? This was obviously a death sentence, and it was done in a blink of an eye, and it was worthless at all!

But in this desperate situation of despair, the Yao family army established an immortal legendary position!

A mere 7,000 people not only blocked the advancement of Xixia reinforcements, but also separated the siege troops that were fighting back, so that they could not look at each other. If they could see each other, they would not be able to meet together... The other Song troops woke up as if they were dreaming and quickly joined the battle. The poor Xixia people, this artificially dug trench became their nightmare and an insurmountable natural trench, making them more and more desperate. As time passed, both sides reached their limits, and the result came out. The Xixia people outside the ditch retreated in a panic, and the people inside the ditch were forced to surrender, and the number of people surrendered was... ten thousand!

7,000 yuan! Yao Xiong became famous in one battle, and from then on he established the prestige of his legendary general!

After this failure, the people of Xixia were beaten to death. They failed, but never failed like this! In the period of Li Yuanhao and Song Shenzong, there were endless brave generals in the Song army, but they would rather die than surrender in desperate situations. I have never seen Yao Xiong push the enemy into desperate situations like this! This is simply unreasonable...

On May 4, Wen Yanbo, a veteran of the four dynasties, passed away at the age of 9.

After the defeat in Pingxia City, the depressed Xixia people remembered their old superior - the Great Liao Kingdom!

Xiao Liang knew how to figure out the psychology of big shots. On June 19, she cried to her superiors as a pitiful and helpless widow: As the most powerful boss in East Asia, now the Song Dynasty is so violent and arrogant, killing people and occupying land. Do you have to come forward? Soon, the Great Liao Kingdom sent a formal letter to the Song Dynasty, with very arrogant words and full of superiors: My dear grandson, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty (Liao Daozong and Song Yingzong are brothers,

Song Zhezong was a grandson in terms of seniority): Hello. Xixia is a sovereign country. He has married the princess of Liao twice and is my relative and subordinate. Recently, it has written many reports and appealed to me that your Song Dynasty sent troops for no reason, robbed land, killed the people, and destroyed the contract. This is really regrettable. Now I ask you to withdraw your troops, return the occupied land, and destroy the private castle... I hope you can agree. If you are disobedient, be careful that I have other actions...

Song Zhezong saw this letter of nationality and Zhang Dun saw it. According to tradition, no matter what, you must have a polite and decent reply. Who made the Song Dynasty a country of etiquette and clothing? But this time the Great Liao Kingdom was completely insulted. After writing such a long letter, there was no such thing as a nonsense! Who do you think you are? The uncle has no time to pay attention to you!

"All enemies are paper tigers" is reliable in any era. The Great Liao Kingdom was ignored, but what if it was ignored? The people of Xixia were sad and angry and found that the people of the Song Dynasty really became very awesome, and the cowards of the Yuanyou period disappeared completely... Even the people of Xixia and the Khitans were not afraid of joining forces!

I was really not afraid, and what made the Xixia people even more depressed was that the Khitans who were supposed to be furious and chopped up people were calmer than anyone else. After being ignored, they didn't show anything. The Song and Liao dynasties were very calm... Xiao Liang couldn't sit anymore, after all, Pingxia City was pressed against their throats, and this thorn must be pulled out!

On August 5, Wang Min also sent troops to recover Youzhou, one of the four prefectures in Yinxia.

In fact, there was a reason why Zhang Dun ignored the Liao Dynasty's letter of state. Therefore, what he wanted to do was a more important thing. He had to devote his energy to the larger and more systematic attack plan! This plan originated from the small internal strife of the old party...

The huge connections of the old party were filled with crisscrossing factional networks. There were before the divisions of Luo, Shuo and Shu parties, and in the dominant Shu party, there were crisscrossing factional networks. Two of the very important mainstreams have always been hostile - the Wen Yanbo group and the Han Qi group.

Both of them are super big bosses, and they all have their own glorious deeds. But Wen Yanbo seems happier. He does less than Han Qi and gains more than Han Qi. Especially the official position has been maintained for a long time. Han Qi has been dead for a long time, and he is still active in the top officialdom. This really makes the officials of the Han Qi system unhappy, so the small revenge begins...

Liu Zhi, the leader of the Shuo Party, was from Han Qi. During his reign, he led the entire Shuo Party to embarrass Wen Yanbo, which led to the boss Wen and the State Department who only received a false position similar to honorary titles such as Pingzhang Military and National Affairs with super qualifications. After Wen Yanbo retired, he continued to work hard to suppress Wen Yanbo's son Wen Jifu. Brother Jifu was a guard in the capital during his father's lifetime, and was doing well. His father had just retired and was immediately transferred to another place. With constant worries every day, he remembered a good friend, turned his depression into a letter, and sent it out...

This friend's name is Xing Shu... As a long-lasting fuse that is scattered by both the old and the new parties, how could he miss such a good opportunity? After many years, he still kept the original letter. It said: Dear Brother Xing, my father is almost out of reach. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I am not sure about becoming an official in Beijing. I don't know when I will wait for you to meet you. Now, the power in the court is jealous of the virtuous and jealous of the virtuous, and there are many followers. In addition, the people of "Fankun" and "Sima Zhao", their hearts are known to everyone, and they will definitely be detrimental to the emperor, which is really worrying...

This letter focuses on the words "Fankun" and "Sima Zhao"...

Fankun refers to the nickname of "Fanhou" for his son-in-law of the son-in-law in history. When Wen Jifu wrote a letter, Fankun of the Song Dynasty was Han Jiayan, the son of Han Qi. Kun refers to "brother". "Fankun" specifically refers to Han Jiayan's brother, Han Zhongyan, the minister of the Privy Council at that time.

"Sima Zhao" refers to the prime minister Lu Dafang during the Yuanyou period. This man has been prime minister for too long, and the outside world says that he monopolizes the power.

Linking between the front and back, there is a terrible content hidden in this letter. The text and the evidence: Lu Dafang was the leader, and officials of the Han Qi group Liu Zhi, Han Zhongyan and others were minions. They had the intention of Sima Zhao... that is, they would be detrimental to Song Zhezong!

This letter became the cornerstone of Zhang Dun's overall plan. With it, all the leaders of the old party can be charged with the crime of regicide and rebellion, and legitimately confiscate the family and destroy the clan. Do it as soon as possible! Zhang Dun quickly arrested the most critical witness, the second generation of the Wen family, the Wen family, and Fu, into the capital!

In August, Young Master Wen finally returned to Beijing as he wished, but the place where he stayed was no longer the grand hall of the Golden Horse in Yutang, but the Tongwenguan filled with torture instruments. This place was very famous later. Because he was tried here, the whole process was called the "Prison of the Tongwenguan".

Young Master Wen was panicked. Who would have thought that a complaining letter would suddenly cause such a big trouble? Although as Wen Yanbo's son, he was very happy to see that Han Qi was in trouble, everything had to be limited. Wen and Han were both veterans of the old party. No matter how he could not become a knife in the hands of the new party, it would make him lose his foundation!

But how to deal with Zhang Dun? Not to mention Young Master Wen, how many celebrities in the old party are still drifting in Jiangnan, and they don’t know how to cooperate. Dare not to cooperate? Zhang Dun can kill him at any time! After thinking about it, he decided to cooperate with him to a limited extent... Wen Jifu played a word game and reinterpreted the keywords "Fenkun" and "Sima Zhao" in the letter. Sima Zhao no longer refers to Lu Dafang, but Liu Zhi. Fan Kun is not Han Zhongyan, but Wang Yansou! Pink? Because Wang Yansou's skin is good, the so-called face is like applying powder! Kun? Wang Yansou's name is calm, and the character is similar to the word "Brother", which can be extended to Kun...

To be fair, Young Master Wen has taken great pains to say that Wen Jie is beautiful. After his explanation, the most sensitive person, the respected former Prime Minister Lu Dafang and Han Qi's eldest son Han Zhongyan, were eliminated, and all the problems were concentrated on the party. Isn't this very good? Anyway, Liu Zhi, Liang Tao, you are exiled now. You are not afraid of boiling water. It doesn't matter if you focus on the light, just think that you have made some contributions to the party and the country!

Zhang Dun looked at this confession and was a little satisfied, even more dissatisfied. The attack surface was narrowed, not as gorgeous as expected! However, the case can continue to be tried, and the general direction has not changed... Moreover, Lu Dafang is dead, Han Zhongyan is very close to the new party, so it would be fine if this person is let go...

Song Zhezong looked at this confession and suddenly realized. He had always been unable to understand the attitude of the ministers towards him during the Yuanyou period. He was the emperor and would take charge of the government sooner or later. This is the simplest truth, but why did Lu Dafang, Liu Zhi and others dare to ignore him? If you explain it clearly by trying to subvert him and murder him... They are enemies, so naturally they will not respect him!

But everything is about evidence. Whether it is written or the letter written in the first place or the alternative explanation at this time, it is just a unilateral evidence. This conviction cannot be convinced...

So Song Zhezong personally found the case handler and asked: Are these Yuanyou ministers really rebelling? Is there any evidence?

Answer: They do have plans to rebel, but they have not shown it yet... subtle, right? This sentence depends on how to understand it. Most people will say that this is a crime that is intended to be added! How can one be convicted if a crime is not shown? This is an unjust case, and the old party was wronged! But from another perspective, Liu Zhi and others' contempt for Song Zhezong can be said to be a prelude to rebellion. As for the failure to carry out specific actions, please ask: Do you have the motive for murder, but if you attempt to kill, you can not be sentenced?

Even if it is far-fetched to explain, this reason is enough in the era of monarchy and power! Song Zhezong ordered Liu Zhi and Liang Tao to be taken back from the exile in the south and went to Beijing for trial! The order did not cross the Yangtze River, but the news from the south had already spread to Kaifeng City. On November 7, Liang Tao, and on January, Liu Zhi people died in their respective exiles, with only 7 days apart... What's going on? Song Shi put this responsibility on Zhang Dun's head again...

Death is not the end! Order Liu and Liang's descendants to move to Lingnan and strictly supervised by local authorities! Wang Yansou died early? His descendants stopped their official positions and moved south! Liu Anshi's fate is good? Let him travel to the south! Take his mother to demote them one by one in the worst, most terrifying and most dead states such as "Chun, Xun, Mei, Xin, Gao, Dou, Lei, Hua" and other eight states with the most severe and terrifying deaths. Let him last!

After these were done, the old party elders were basically dead. The remaining shrimp soldiers and crab generals began to be glad: Zhang Dun, you are cruel! What else can you do if you cut them all? Finally, I got through this hurdle!

However, they were wrong. This step is still Zhang Dun's preparation, and the bigger goal is still to come!

In the fifth year of Shaosheng (1098), Zhang Dun raised a question - Empress Dowager Gao was ill and died of illness and could not work during this period, Song Zhezong did not take charge of the rule, so who handled state affairs?

This is very sharp, and the question is crucial! You should know that the life of "Yao and Shun, a woman," is quite strong. She did not die suddenly like Zhao Kuangyin, but was delayed for a long time. During this period, who was the head of state and who exercised the authority of the emperor?
Chapter completed!