Chan Yuanchen: a Centenary Date Between the Song and Liao Dynasties

In the first year of Jingde, Xiao Chuo, Empress Dowager Chengtian of the Liao State, led a personal expedition with Shengzong Yujia. Two hundred thousand cavalry broke through the Hebei defense line, and the troops approached Chanzhou on the north bank of the Yellow River. The greatest crisis of national subjugation since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty suddenly came. At that time, the Song Dynasty had been in peace for a long time, and its emphasis on civil affairs and neglect of military affairs had serious disadvantages. The imperial army was strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and the border defenses were empty and vulnerable. The Bianjing court was instantly divided: the escape faction advocated moving south to avoid disaster and only wanted to retain the imperial power; the war faction advocated the emperor's personal conquest with all his strength. Song Zhenzong Zhao Heng was timid and suspicious, but in the desperate situation where the people were overturned, he was forced to embark on a personal expedition to determine the fate of the country. Chanzhou Gucheng defended the city, and the Song army killed the Liao army general Xiao Talan with one arrow, and the battle situation suddenly reversed. The Song and Liao dynasties faced each other across the river. If they won, they would not be able to completely annihilate them. If they lost, they would be subjugated. War would bring ruin to the people, and peace would bring them eternal infamy. The envoy Cao Li entered the Liao camp alone and fought for every advantage. Finally, at the price of 300,000 years old coins, the two countries stopped their troops. With the Chanyuan Alliance, Song and Liao became brothers, extinguishing the flames of war thousands of miles away, opening up border trade for a hundred years, allowing the displaced people to return to their homeland, and leaving the Central Plains free of war. Some people denounced it as a humiliating alliance under the city, while others praised it as a good strategy to save the people and secure the country. The iron-blooded prime minister Kou Zhun tried to turn the tide, but was framed and demoted, and finally became a sad and lonely minister; Zhenzong enjoyed peace, but was deeply troubled by inner demons, and indulged in auspicious Zen in his later years; civil servants and military generals, border doctors, and refugee soldiers all made involuntary choices about their family and country in troubled times. This book takes official history as its basis and human nature as its veins. It breaks away from black-and-white historical judgments, restores the military and political dilemma of the Zhenzong Dynasty and the intrigues of the court, writes about the blood and tears of the common people between war and peace, and tells the story of the dust and smoke in the abyss of Chan.