Chapter 37 This is where Taizong races
How to do business is Chai Jin's business.

Cao Jie's job is to provide "medicine" as a stepping stone and be responsible for security along the way.

It is true that Chai Jin is rich, but the people he recruited are really not that good.

Even those who are capable cannot stay in his house for long because they are all prisoners.

For example, Lin Chong and Chai Jin stayed at the farm for several days, and were treated to delicious food and wine every day. On the fifth day, the two officials urged them to leave.

If you don't leave now, you will miss the deadline.

Chai Jin arranged a banquet to see him off and wrote two letters to Lin Chong, saying, "I am also on good terms with the magistrate of Cangzhou, and the prison warden and the chief officer are also on good terms with me. You can take these two letters with them, and they will surely not make things difficult for the instructor."

He then gave Lin Chong a large silver ingot weighing twenty-five taels, and gave five taels of silver to Dong Chao and Xue Ba.

The next morning, after breakfast, he asked the farmhands to carry the luggage of the three people. Lin Chong still wore the shackles, said goodbye to Chai Jin and Cao Jie, and went to the prison outside Cangzhou city.

As soon as Lin Chong left, most of Chai Jin's confidants also arrived one after another. They were all veterans in business and had been traveling between the Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty for many years.

Doing business is naturally easy.

But the environment is not very good nowadays. Many heroes have become bandits on many hills. If you are not careful, you may lose everything.

Chai Jin has a lot of connections in Cangzhou, but outside the Song Dynasty, there is no way to deal with the bandits in the Liao Kingdom, so this requires a gangster like Cao Jie to take action.

It is the quality of guards that matters, not their quantity.

The three Ruan brothers, together with Lu Fang and Cao Zheng, are more than enough to deal with ordinary bandits.

Spreading out the map of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, Cao Jie searched carefully, pointed at a hilltop, and said:

"We need a place to stay in Liao territory, and Yinmachuan is a good place. Setting up a stronghold will serve as a transit point for our business.

When a large army is on the march, it is essential to have scouts and pioneers. We can first go to Yinmachuan to find out what is going on. If we can win over the local heroes, that would be even better. This channel is halfway through..."

Chai Jin looked at the location of Yinmachuan and saw that the mountain was located to the north of Jizhou Prefecture, between Liaonanjing and Lulongzhai.

Nanjing of the Liao Dynasty was the later Yanjing.

Lulongzhai is the Xifengkou of later generations.

This Yinmachuan overlooks the White Mountains and Black Waters in the east, is connected to the prairie in the north, is linked to Yanjing in the west, and is Cangzhou in the south. It is truly a great place to visit.

"Second brother, you have a good eye! If we have this place, the caravans can go in all directions and spread all over the Liao Kingdom, and we can make a lot of money. However, it seems that some heroes have become bandits in this mountain."

The three Ruans squeezed their heads closer to take a look and said with a smile, "Since this is a good place, let's leave it to us brothers! We'll use courtesy first and then force. If they are stubborn and refuse to change, we'll eliminate this den of thieves, and Erlang and the official will arrange for people to take over."

Yinmachuan is occupied by three heroes: "Fire-eyed Suanni" Deng Fei, "Jade Banner" Meng Kang, and "Iron-faced Man" Pei Xuan.

That iron-faced official was truly a hero. The books recorded that he was a native of Jingzhao Prefecture and had served as a clerk in six cases. Because of his uprightness, he was persecuted by the government and exiled to Shamen Island.

In the middle, he was rescued by the Fire-Eyed Suanni, and became a bandit in Yinmachuan. Later, he was recruited by Dai Zong and joined Liangshan.

This person definitely hasn’t gone up the mountain at this point in time, so let’s not talk about him for now.

Yufangan was a shipbuilder who had a unique skill in building warships.

It was this Fire-Eyed Suanni that Cao Jie was somewhat unable to control. Looking at his actions, firstly, he yielded the title of village leader to Pei Xuan, secondly, he saved people in battles many times, and finally died while trying to rescue people. He was truly a hero.

He is ranked 49th, which is particularly high among the Disha. He also has outstanding abilities and has served as the deputy general of Qin Ming and Dong Ping many times.

But there is also a poem saying "After eating a lot of human flesh, his eyes turn red; the flaming-eyed Suan Ni is Deng Fei", indicating that this person is a man-eating monster.

"Forget it, let's see when we meet him in person!"

"The praises in the book are mostly exaggerated and should not be taken seriously... If the description in the poem is true, then Liangshan would be a devil's cave with countless bones..."

Prepare weapons, soft armor, dry food and horses, and prepare to march north.

Before leaving, Lu Fang advised again: "The Liao people are unfamiliar with the place, why take the risk, let me and the three Ruan brothers go to take Yinmachuan."

"Brother Lu Fang, stop trying to persuade me. How can I let my brothers take risks and just sit back and reap the benefits?" Come on, come with me, there's a huge difference between them!
When you start a business, you need to take more risks.

Moreover, in Cao Jie's opinion, Yinmachuan was not too dangerous. As long as he avoided the Liao army, he could take it in one fell swoop.

"Don't worry! With the three of us here, there's no place in the world we can't go."

The six people and two guides traveled by day and at night, safely crossing the border and arriving in Yanyun.

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are the eternal pain of Han men.

The puppet emperor Shi Jingtang gave away the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and the final result was that the disaster continues to this day.

A unified dynasty without Yanyun would be like exposing the vital points of the Central Plains to the iron hoofs of the grassland peoples.

From Yanyun all the way to the city of Tokyo, the road is flat and there is no strategic location to defend.

After the ambitious Emperor Taizong unified the Central Plains and the south, he attacked the Liao in order to seize the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. At first, the Song army's offensive was fierce, winning battles one after another, and soon besieged the Liao Nanjing (Yanjing).

In the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo, the two sides fought fiercely at Gaoliang River and the Song army was defeated.

Yelu Xiu'ge, a famous general of the Liao Dynasty and the King of the Southern Court, led 9,000 cavalrymen to defeat the 100,000-strong Song army. Emperor Taizong was shot by two arrows and fled in a donkey cart across the Gaoliang River, which is how he avoided being captured.

Taizong's arrow wound recurred every year, and he finally died from it.

In fact, the real cause of his death might be heart disease. The battle of Gaoliang River left an indelible shadow in his heart. One hundred thousand Song troops were almost wiped out by nine thousand Liao troops. He got angry every day when he thought about it.

At that time, Song had just destroyed Northern Han and captured Yang Ye and Yang Wudi in this battle. Taizong used the remaining power from destroying Northern Han to attack Liao. Who could have thought that it would turn out so tragically.

Four years later, Emperor Jingzong of Liao, Yelü Xian, died of illness, and Emperor Shengzong of Liao, Yelü Longxu, ascended the throne at the age of twelve. His mother, Xiao Chuo, was the famous Empress Dowager Xiao, and she began to rule at this time.

Taking advantage of the young ruler and the country's suspicion, Emperor Taizong divided his 200,000-strong army into three routes to attack Liao for the second time. The Eastern Army was the main force, commanded by Cao Bin, the general who pacified the chaos in the Central Plains. Tian Zhong entered the middle route, and Pan Mei and Yang Ye went to the west route.

Unfortunately, as soon as the Eastern Army left Hejian Prefecture, it was severely hit by the main force of the Liao Army. The 40,000 cavalrymen of the famous Southern Kingdom, King Nanyuan Yelu Xizhen, defeated the 100,000 Song Army and wiped out all of them. Cao Bin fled the battlefield with dozens of people.

It must be said that every King of the Southern Court is extremely powerful.

Tian Chongjin, the commander of the central army, was so frightened that he dared not go out. Instead, he chopped off the heads of some Khitan civilians and took them back to claim credit.

After Pan Mei and Yang Ye left the Western Army, the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun occupied four prefectures in Yunzhong, which should be considered a great victory. However, the Liao army was mainly composed of cavalry, and they quickly returned to the west once the battlefield in the east was settled. Then the supply of the Western Army of the Song Dynasty could not keep up, so Pan Mei had to retreat and Yang Ye provided cover.

In the end, part of the Western Route Army escaped, and the entire Yang family army was wiped out. Yang Wudi was defeated and captured, and was imprisoned in the Haotian Tower and died of hunger strike for his country.

Two great wars, two disastrous defeats!
After that, the Song Dynasty was defeated.

But if you don't attack others, they will attack you. Emperor Taizong failed twice in his attack on the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo was not a good person either, so how could she tolerate it?

In the first year of Jingde, Empress Dowager Xiao of Liao and Emperor Shengzong of Liao, Yelü Longxu, personally led a large army deep into Song territory in the name of retaking Waqiao Pass.

The famous general Xiao Talina captured Suicheng and attacked Dingzhou.

The Song court was shaken, and Emperor Zhenzong was afraid of the enemy and wanted to move the capital and flee south.

Fortunately, God blessed the Song Dynasty and it was lucky. The Liao Nanjing Army Commander was shot and killed by a hidden crossbow on the front line in Chanzhou, and Xiao Talina was shot in the head and fell off his horse. The morale of the Liao army was crushed. When Empress Dowager Xiao and others heard of Talina's death, they cried bitterly and suspended court for five days.

Kou Zhun took the opportunity to initiate peace talks, which led to the Treaty of Chanyuan.

Then, there was peace on the Song-Liao border for nearly a hundred years. For the Song Dynasty, it did make a profit in the short term, but it still lost money in the end.

He was labeled a coward in history books, a shame that can never be washed away.

That night, Cao Jie and his group were blocked by a river.

After carefully analyzing the map, Cao Jie smiled and said, "This is Gaoliang River."

"Gaoliang River? Why does it sound familiar?" Ruan Xiaoqi asked.

"This is where Emperor Taizong raced his car... Back then, Emperor Taizong abandoned his 100,000-strong army and fled south in a donkey cart, and the elite cavalry of the Liao Kingdom didn't even catch up. Hehe..."

Cao Jie stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the crescent moon in the sky. He felt that the landscape was picturesque and there were so many heroes at the time!
(End of this chapter)