In March of the tenth year of Xining, Zhao Yan personally led an army of 130,000 out of Bei'an City and once again advanced to the Dading Prefecture of Zhongjing, Liao. For a moment, the Liao Kingdom was panicked. After Yelu Renxian's army was eliminated, the Liao Kingdom had no more troops available. Under such circumstances, the Liao Emperor Yelu Jun hurriedly sent envoys to the Song army camp to seek peace.

The Liao Kingdom's active peace was exactly the same as Zhao Yan's intention. After all, the Song army seemed to be powerful, but it had become the last of its strength. Not only were the soldiers extremely tired, but the imperial court also supported it to its limit, and it was impossible to continue to fight. In addition, even if it could conquer the Dading Prefecture and other places, the Song Dynasty would probably not be able to defend it, so being able to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was already the limit of the Song Dynasty.

However, although Zhao Yan wanted to withdraw his troops, he was still polite about the Liao Dynasty's peace request. He first left the Liao Dynasty envoy in the military camp for several days, and finally pretended to be impatient to meet the other party. Before the other party could ask for peace request, Zhao Yan directly said, "Let Yelu Jun come to talk to me in person", and then turned around and left.

Although the envoy of the Liao Kingdom was very angry about Zhao Yan's arrogant attitude, he was also very frightened, because he believed that the Song Dynasty had no plans to negotiate, but was determined to capture Zhongjing, so he did not dare to delay any delay. He stayed to inquire about the situation himself, and then sent his deputy envoy to rush back to the capital to meet Yelu Jun, and raised Zhao Yan's request to go to the peace talks in person.

Yelu Jun did not expect that Zhao Yan would make such an insulting request. You should know that he was the emperor of the Liao Kingdom, and Zhao Yan was just the prince of the Song Dynasty. The two had no equal status in their identities. Even during the Chanyuan Alliance, they were negotiated in the name of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty and the Emperor of the Liao Kingdom. Now Zhao Yan asked him to go for negotiation. This simply puts the identities of the two at the same level.

It is precisely because of this that Yelu Jun was furious again after receiving the deputy report, wishing to lead troops to destroy Zhao Yan's army. Unfortunately, the Liao Kingdom really could not send troops. There were many troops stationed in the north and northwest frontiers, but those troops needed to guard the frontier. If he had transferred these troops back regardless of the matter, it would be fine to destroy Zhao Yan, but the frontiers of their Liao Kingdom would be in chaos, so this was not worth the loss. In addition, the army on these frontiers was long. If they had arrived, the Song Dynasty would have taken Zhongjing away long ago.

After getting angry, Yelu Jun finally had to leave Shangjing and rushed to Zhongjing Dading Prefecture to meet Zhao Yan. After all, he could not watch the Song Dynasty take away the Dading Prefecture. So he could only endure this humiliating meeting, but he secretly swore in his heart that when he had the chance in the future, he would definitely return the humiliation of today a hundred times!

Seeing Yelu Jun really came in person, Zhao Yan was also proud, because this meant that the Liao Kingdom had been forced to a dead end by itself, and there was no other way to imagine except for peace talks. This also gave Zhao Yan more bargaining chips during peace talks, and he would definitely gain greater benefits for the Song Dynasty.

In order to show his sincerity, Zhao Yan immediately withdrew the army fifty miles behind after Yelu Jun arrived in Zhongjing, that is, to the south bank of Luan River, and ten miles behind was Bei'an City. Then he sent someone to inform Yelu Jun, hoping that he would come to the shore of Luan River to discuss peace talks.

Yelu Jun naturally could not retreat from Zhao Yan's invitation, so he ordered the 30,000 personal troops he brought, plus the 60,000 defenders of Dading Prefecture, and a total of 90,000 people rushed to the north bank of the Luan River and across the river from the Song army.

The Luan River is one of the two largest rivers in the Liao Kingdom. The other is the Huang River between Shangjing and Zhongjing, and the Luan River is located between Zhongjing and Xijin Prefecture in Nanjing. Unfortunately, the Xijin Prefecture has been occupied by the Song Dynasty, and almost all south of the Luan River have fallen into the hands of the Song Dynasty. In addition, the river is wide, even if the army wants to cross the river, it will not take a moment to prevent conflict between the two armies, so Zhao Yan chose the negotiation location here.

The location of the negotiation was selected, but there were differences between the two sides on the way of negotiation. Among them, the Liao Kingdom believed that the Song Dynasty should send envoys to the Liao military camp to negotiate like the Chanyuan Alliance, and it would be best if Zhao Yan came in person. After all, Yelu Jun, as the emperor of the Liao Kingdom, came in person, and it was impossible for him to condescend to go to the Song military camp again.

Zhao Yan naturally would not agree to the Liao Dynasty's request. First, he refused to take risks. Second, if he took the initiative to enter the Liao military camp, the Liao Dynasty might become the proactive party in the negotiations. Therefore, he would never accept this negotiation method. Instead, he proposed that the Liao Dynasty send envoys to his camp to negotiate. After all, the Song Dynasty now has an advantage.

It can be said that the Song and Liao sides had their own opinions on the negotiation method, and neither of them was willing to compromise. Finally, Zhao Yan proposed a solution, that is, each of them took a boat, and then he and Yelu Jun came to the river on a boat with only a few guards, and then negotiated on the boat, so that no one could take advantage of anyone.

After considering Zhao Yan's proposal, Yelu Jun finally agreed. So on a sunny morning, the army of Song and Liao countries were arrayed on both sides of the straits, with a medium-sized ship docking on the banks of the two armies. Apart from these two ships, there were no ships on the entire Luan River surface, which was also reached in advance.

It was almost noon, Zhao Yan and Yelu Jun appeared on the bank of the river almost at the same time. Then the two brought ten guards and five boatmen on board respectively. The two ships walked towards each other and soon came to the center of the river. When the bows of the ships reached, one guard from each side came to the other side's boat to check whether there were ambushers on the other side's boats, as well as weapons other than knives, etc. When it was confirmed that neither of the boats on both sides had violated the previous agreement, the two ships were anchored and fixed at the same time and tied together with ropes.

It was not until this time that Zhao Yan walked out of the cabin with a smile and stood at the bow of the boat waiting for Yelu Jun. After a while, the cabin door on the opposite boat was opened, and then Yelu Jun, wearing a dragon robe, walked to the bow of the boat. However, when he saw Zhao Yan smiling, there was a complicated look on his face. He probably wouldn't have thought that when the two met again, it would be in this situation.

"Brother Yan, you haven't seen each other for many years, your style is even better than the past!" At this time, Yelu Jun took the initiative to speak. He still used the title he called when he first met Zhao Yan. At that time, they were both princes. According to the alliance between the two countries, they were both brothers. At the beginning, the two got along very happily, but no one expected to meet again on the battlefield.

"Your Majesty is the same. I really admire you when he put down Yelu Chongyuan's rebellion in his backhand!" Zhao Yan also bowed to Yelu Jun. Although he had a different position from Yelu Jun, Zhao Yan was indeed very impressed that he could put down Yelu Chongyuan's rebellion in such a short time and also quickly restore these achievements in the Liao Dynasty's economy.

"Haha, when it comes to Yelu Chongyuan's rebellion, I want to thank you, Brother Yan. If it weren't for the secret provocation of you and Brother Zhao Xu, how could Yelu Chongyuan launch a rebellion so quickly!" Yelu Jun couldn't help but grit his teeth when he heard Zhao Yan mention Yelu Chongyuan's rebellion. It was the secret plan of the two brothers Zhao Yan and Zhao Xu that Yelu Chongyuan rebelled early, which led to the sharp decline in the national strength of the Liao Kingdom and almost failed to recover.

"Haha, it's just a little thing, Your Majesty doesn't have to take it to heart!" Zhao Yan didn't want to bother with Yelu Jun about the original incident anymore, so he said lightly, but his appearance made Yelu Jun's hatred even more itchy.

However, Zhao Yan didn't care about Yelu Jun's opinion of him. He looked up at the sky, waved his hand back, and the guard behind him immediately moved out of the cabin and took out a few wines and dishes from the food box. At this time, Zhao Yan smiled at Yelu Jun and said, "Your Majesty, it's almost noon. I haven't had time to have lunch yet. Why don't we sit down and have a drink?"

When Yelu Jun heard Zhao Yan invite him to drink, he also showed an unexpected expression, because from the beginning of the peace talks, both sides were guarding against each other from the inside out, especially the safety of him and Zhao Yan, which was the top priority, for fear of being accidentally plotted against each other, but now Zhao Yan actually invited him to drink. What if he poisoned the wine and food?

"Your Majesty, you must not, be careful!" At this time, the guard leader beside Yelu Jun also shook his head gently and said, according to the prior agreement, there was no such thing as eating, so in his opinion, Zhao Yan's action was simply a deliberate attempt to poison His Majesty.

However, what no one expected was that after hearing Zhao Yan's invitation, Yelu Jun just glanced at Zhao Yan deeply, and then suddenly strode over and said, "Does Brother Yan have such a good mood? I will have a few drinks with you? Speaking of which, I also like the strong wine from the Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, the weak wine sold to the Liao Kingdom every year in the Song Dynasty."

"Haha, if Your Majesty likes strong wine, I will send you some in the future. Speaking of which, I have stored a lot of good wine. Unfortunately, the women and children at home don't like to smell the smell of wine, so I rarely drink it." Zhao Yan also laughed at the moment, and he was worried about what he said, as if two friends were chatting about home.

At that moment, Zhao Yan poured a glass of wine for Yelu Jun, and then the two of them had a drink first, and then Zhao Yan called each other to eat the dishes. Although they were in the army, Zhao Yan asked the chef at home to cook a lot of dishes before coming, and then made them into canned food and sealed them. In addition, the weather was cold, and it was still very delicious to preserve it. After tasting Yelu Tan, he also praised it repeatedly, which also eased the relationship between the two.

After three rounds of wine, Yelu Jun put down his wine glass, his smile on his face also calmed down, and then stared at Zhao Yan's eyes and asked, "Brother Yan, you have tasted the wine and food. What conditions do you need to withdraw from the army?" (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!