Dismissal of Kou Zhun from the Chancellorship

Timeline

1. 1005Bianjing (Kaifeng) · Capital CircuitAfter the Treaty of Chanyuan was concluded, Kou Zhun grew increasingly arrogant from his rewarded merits. After Wang Qinruo returned to court, he repeatedly memorialized that Kou Zhun, at the Battle of Chanzhou, had the Son of Heaven himself conclude a treaty at the foot of the walls, a disgrace in the eyes of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and accused him of risking the sovereign's person in a desperate gamble. Emperor Zhenzong thus grew distant from Kou Zhun.
2. 1006Bianjing (Kaifeng) · Capital CircuitUnder repeated exclusion by Wang Qinruo and others, Kou Zhun was removed from the chancellorship and sent to govern Shanzhou, leaving the central government. For more than a decade afterward he never again held the chancellorship for long, and Northern Song policy toward the Liao shifted from favoring war to maintaining the status quo.