As we all know, the Northern Song Dynasty was a Central Plains Dynasty that "gave silver to ensure peace", and in 1005 AD, Emperor Zhenzong of Song and the Liao State concluded the "Alliance of Liaoyuan", promising to give the Liao State an annual value of 300,000 taels of silver coins; In 1044 AD, Song Renzong and the Western Xia Emperor made peace, and the Song Dynasty gave the Western Xia 50,000 taels of silver, 130,000 silk horses, and 20,000 catties of tea as annual coins, which can be said that the Song Dynasty was a piece of "Tang monk meat" that could be slaughtered by others. However, some countries are insatiable, such as the envoys of the Liao State after the "Alliance of the Liaoyuan", using war as a threat to extort 60,000 taels of silver from the Northern Song Dynasty.
It turned out that after the alliance of Liaoyuan, the emissaries of the Liao State requested another amount of silver on the pretext of being nervous about silver in the country, and Song Zhenzong was very troubled by this, so he took the liao emissaries to Wang Dan, the prime minister at the time. Wang Dan looked at it and said: "Now the situation in the east is too tense, there are traces of Liao cavalry activities everywhere, it is obvious that the Liao envoys are only using this matter to test the bottom line of the Song Dynasty, if they do not agree to their demands, then the Liao army will raise troops to invade the Song Dynasty again." ”
So Song Zhenzong hurriedly asked what to do, only to see Wang Dan pondering and saying: "On the basis of 300,000 two-year-old coins, we can lend them an additional 60,000 taels of silver, and tell them that these money must be deducted from next year's annual coins." After the envoys of the Liao State received 60,000 taels of silver, they felt landless and self-respecting, and they were very ashamed to return home with the silver, and since then the Liao State has also stopped all kinds of provocative acts on the border of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the following year, when the household officials were issuing the Liaoguo coins, they specifically asked Wang Dan whether to deduct 60,000 taels of silver from the Liaoguo coins, and Wang Dan replied: "This little money is insignificant for the Northern Song Dynasty, or it is issued to the Liao state according to 300,000 taels, but when it is distributed, it is necessary to tell the liao envoys, this kind of thing is not an example." If they are lent in vain and not returned, it will fuel their greedy ambitions; If we deduct the old coins of the Liao Dynasty, there is no way to show the great power style of the Song Dynasty, so this matter is handled in this way. ”
It is really difficult for wang dan, the prime minister at that time, on the one hand, to spend a lot of money for peace, on the other hand, it is also necessary to take into account that these money should be famous, no wonder the prime ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty are very good at living a life, it seems that the rumor that "the Northern Song Dynasty has no generals, the Southern Song Dynasty has no phases" is not fiction.