Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 200 The Nine Heavens Close the Palace

Soon, the news that Queen Wang was not dead spread throughout Kaifeng. The people of Kaifeng were shocked by two waves of secrets in a short period of time. Invisibly, there was a hint of reversal, and the discussion naturally became more intense. Taller.

However, not many people discussed Zhao Guangmei's repaying evil with kindness this time. In the eyes of many ordinary people, isn't it appropriate for His Highness King Qin to do this? Who is His Highness King Qin? He is a true great sage who only meets once in a thousand years. His arrogance is well known to the world, but he is no longer the same person.

But this time, Princess Qin really made a "hot search". After dinner, people were talking about it. In addition, she had indeed undergone many side operations before. Hua Tuo was reincarnated. Titles such as magpie rebirth and rejuvenation came all at once, and more people simply called her a medical fairy when they mentioned her.

Even if the body is disembowelled, it can be sewn back up again. Isn't this a magical trick like that of an immortal?

Even this rumor became more and more exaggerated as it spread, as if Zhang Ling'er could cure any disease in the world if it came into his hands.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhang Ling'er took a lot of money from her husband to expand the medical school and recruited a bunch of disciples to jointly study surgical methods. In fact, she had broken away from Zhao Guangmei's teachings and entered into freedom. It's in the exploration stage. Every day, they cut up pigs or carcasses. Every now and then, they cut up a few death row prisoners for human experiments.

Of course, most of her disciples are currently the children of the rich and powerful, and they only treat ordinary people, and they don't charge money. If they are willing to go to the operating table, they all want to pay you, but the cure rate is really low. Touching, he dared to take on any job, dared to cut anyone, most of them would not be able to get out after the cut, and contributed to the medicine of the Song Dynasty with his life.

On the other side, after more than a month of training, Queen Wang finally recovered her body as usual, and the first thing she did was to stab Mrs. Huarui to death with her own hands.

As for it, it has not been proven so far that Mrs. Huarui actually played a role in that incident. This is actually not important. The reason why Queen Wang killed Mrs. Huarui was just because she wanted to kill her.

Even if he just didn't like her, if he killed her, he would be killed. Zhao Kuangyin couldn't do anything to his wife.

After all, she was never really that big of a character. Historically, Zhao Guangyi was unhappy with her and simply shot her to death during the banquet. Isn't that okay?

As a plaything, you must be clear about your position, and you must not touch things that you should not get involved in. When you really treat yourself as a dish, you are naturally seeking death.

At least in Zhao Kuangyin, his toys and family were kept separate.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Zhao Guangmei. In fact, he doesn't even pay attention to that woman. It doesn't matter to him whether she lives or dies. The relationship between husband and wife of the elder brother and sister-in-law is better than that. A woman's life and death were much more important. After all, he had to thank that woman. If she hadn't been so clever, he might never be able to untie the knot between him and the queen in his lifetime.After experiencing these things, the matter about Wang Jixun has now ended between Zhao Guangmei and Queen Wang.

Of course, these things were not the focus of Zhao Guangmei's busy life. In fact, because these family affairs involved his energy, he was really at a loss.

He is really busy with big things every day now.

In the few months since he left, a lot of major events have happened. First, envoys from the Bohai Kingdom came. They did not say that they would be vassal and pay tribute, but they seemed to hope to open up trade and open sea trade with them.

Who knows if this involves the internal struggle of the Liao Kingdom, but at present, the relationship between the Emperor of the Liao and the powerful clan clans in the country is indeed quite uneasy.

The second is that the Wuyue Kingdom sent envoys, hoping to allow commercial banks to open branches in Hangzhou, and even hoped that Hangzhou would implement the New Deal. Their Qian family could formally enter the court at any time and formally incorporate the Wuyue Kingdom into the territory of the Song Dynasty. The only condition was that the process must be a peaceful handover. To avoid the loss of life.

But to put it bluntly, they hope that the Song Dynasty can guarantee their vested interests and ask Zhao Guangmei for some equity in the trading company.

Because the matter involved a commercial bank, Zhao Kuangyin always wanted to wait until Zhao Guangmei came back before talking about it. Of course, Zhao Guangmei said it was no problem.

Another incident was the envoy from Khotan, who also said that he wanted to restore the Silk Road with the Song Dynasty, or that he wanted to get involved with the trading houses.

In the end, even the Kingdom of Karakhan and the Kingdom of Saman sent envoys, and they had been waiting for him for several months, hoping to establish trade and alliance with the Song Dynasty.

In fact, this has nothing to do with the Central Plains Dynasty, and has little actual strategic significance. It is just like Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried to unite with the Dayue clan to attack the Xiongnu. This is far away from thousands of mountains and rivers. Since everyone hates the Khitans, it's just a matter of making friends. There's nothing to hope for.

Finally, it was the Liao envoys who came, but it was a pity that they were not Xiao Chuo and Han Derang, two acquaintances. They kept mentioning the friendship between Song and Liao, hoping that the two families could stop their troops in the northwest, otherwise if the stalemate continued like this, there would be an accident. That's too bad.

There were many things going on, and the business development of the trading houses was not always smooth sailing. Especially outside the Song Dynasty, there were always all kinds of messy things. Therefore, after Queen Wang recovered from her illness, Zhao Guangmei simply sent out a hero post and invited Envoys from various countries, including the Liao Kingdom, will all come to Kaifeng for a gathering in half a year. The entire summit forum will save him the trouble of talking about weird things one by one.

Taking advantage of this period of time, Zhao Guangmei decided to capture Liangzhou first no matter what, so he sent Yang Ye, who had just returned from Sichuan and Shu, with [-] elite troops who had just returned from Shu.

Yang Ye was originally from the Yang family in Linzhou, the son-in-law of Zhe Deyi. Naturally, this person became more powerful when he went to the northwest. The Dangxiang people who had been a bit tired of foreign labor immediately burst into a new round of passion, forcing the Liao Kingdom to They could only struggle to deal with it and kept recruiting troops and horses for support. Both sides were investing more and more troops, and a decisive battle was about to begin.

The Guiyi Army and Zhang Qiong's party were naturally unwilling to be outdone. The trend of further expanding the scale of the war was obvious. Zhao Guangmei's attitude was clear. Either we will fight a national war. If you don't use the whole country's strength to come, you can't even hope to get it. The advantage is that you have to give up at least one of Liangzhou and Ganzhou.

Anyway, if the Liao Kingdom really launches a large-scale mobilization...just defend if you can, and run if you can't. Anyway, the northwest land is not the core area of ​​the Song Dynasty.

It is Zhao Guangmei's long-established national policy to never fight head-on with the fully mobilized Liao army.

But to be honest, it’s hard to say whether the Liao Kingdom still has the ability to fully mobilize. Yelujing in the Liao Kingdom is definitely not as fatuous and debauched as described by the Song Dynasty. To a certain extent, it can even be said that he is a talented person and has been strengthening the monarch. centralization.

However, the centralization of monarchical power was not so easy in the Liao Kingdom. Various nobles had long been dissatisfied with this, and even the Yelv clan was full of internal conflicts. If a mobilization order was issued, if great results could not be achieved, I'm afraid that he himself will not be able to protect his throne.

There is no need to start a fight. Zhao Guangmei does not believe that Yelu Housezhi will really be loyal to Yelu Jing. It is not just the Central Plains that is in chaos these days. The political system of the Liao Kingdom is too similar to the Tang Dynasty. Which generation would not have something like this? The common people are not used to palace coups or tribal rebellions turning people's brains into pieces.

Of course, the pressure faced by the Song Dynasty is not small. This year's fiscal year will not have any surplus, and even the savings accumulated last year will have to be spent. Most of the civil servants in the court are opposed, and even most of the military generals do not agree. The real war with the Liao Kingdom began.

If Yang Ye could be sent out, it was Zhao Guangmei who was overcoming all objections and Zhao Kuangyin who was fully supporting him.

Half a year is here in a blink of an eye.

Everyone knows that today, Kaifeng City will hold a super grand summit forum, and envoys from various countries will come here as guests. Even the Qian family of Wuyue Kingdom will simply join the court and become the prime minister, allowing the Song Dynasty to peacefully annex the land of Wuyue.

This is the first time such a grand event has been held since the founding of the Song Dynasty. The so-called coming of all nations to the DPRK is nothing more than this. I even heard that even the Liao Kingdom sent two waves of envoys to congratulate the Song Dynasty.

As for why a country sends two waves of envoys, one with the surname of Xiao and the other with the surname of Yelu, then everyone has no idea.

As for the names that ordinary people are not familiar with, such as Bohai, Jurchen, and Wugu Shiwei, they are even more confusing to ordinary people, but they also shock the civil and military officials who are really knowledgeable.

These foreign tribes that were attached to the Khitan actually sent envoys directly to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty!

Is Yelujing's control over the Liao Kingdom so low now?
Even the Bohai and Jurchens are like this. The Ganzhou Uighurs in the northwest region and even the Gaochang Uighurs naturally don't even bother to pretend. It is said that the tributes are coming one after another, and the scale of the envoys is huge. It was so big, with nearly a thousand people in it, that it was simply scary.

As the saying goes, "Nine heavens closed the palace, and all the nations wore their hats and bowed." This grand scene made some people burst into tears with excitement. It was like a scene of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Naturally, everyone from Zhao Kuangyin to everyone Traffickers and pawns all attach great importance to this.

Even the Yizi Sect of the Sky Squirrel was busy, asking the brothers of the Yizi Sect to take brooms and sweep the floor in person, wishing that every inch of the land would be as clean as licking it with their tongues.

Of course, the most important thing is to warn those petty thieves and gangsters to stop in the past month. Anyone who dares to cause trouble in the past few days and tarnish the image of Song Dynasty as a foreign guest will not be treated lightly. , I will teach you that you cannot live or die.

Even the sanitation fee was not charged this month, and every shop was decorated with colorful ribbons, colorful silks, and even flowers. The numerous hook-and-rail tile shops became extremely lively because of this. On the Bianhe River, people usually All the artists performing on the dance pavilion and the singing stage perform for free on the ship. The various unique music and dances are a feast for the eyes and make people linger. However, it is said that they have made more money than usual from the free performances these days, so I don’t know how to return. It's over.

Zhao Guangmei even used funds from commercial banks to buy countless real and fake flowers from around the capital, and spent money like running water to decorate every useless place.

The common people are doing their best to express their happiness. Non-alcoholic drinks in major restaurants are at least half price, and major restaurants and corner stores even have free drinks. The band thing is all busy, and every household is hiring people. After blowing and blowing, what stands out is the excitement.

In fact, the current resident population of Kaifeng City has reached more than 250 million. Counting the floating population in surrounding areas to join in the fun, it is very likely that there are 300 million people.

Once a city with a population of this size worked together to hold a celebration, the kind of restlessness it would cause was completely unimaginable to ancient people. A city with a population of 300 million had never been heard of since ancient times.

Chang'an City in the prosperous Tang Dynasty only had more than 100 million people.

Just one big character is enough to shock these bumpkins from other places. Millions of ordinary people come to the streets to watch the excitement, which makes them feel even more flattered and even horrified.

Zhao Guangmei did not forget to organize the work. After discussing with envoys from all parties, she also organized a float parade activity, which was to organize some very big cars. Each car was pulled by six cows, and they were paraded on the main street of Kaifeng City. Walk slowly, and then let these envoys come to perform exotic customs for the people of Kaifeng.

The Uighurs were very happy. They had come to show their friendship, and they brought a large number of dancers to pay tribute this time, and they danced directly on the car.

The people of Khotan are similar. They are said to be good at singing and dancing. Although there are no professional dancers among their envoys, they all look pretty when they twist. The people along the street just watch the excitement. In terms of beauty, they are far away. It is far inferior to the professional dancers on the Bianhe River, but seeing such dancing envoys really brings tears to people's eyes.It's even better for the Wuyue Kingdom. They just came to surrender, and they didn't have any burden on their hearts. Besides, there's no way they have anything to do with foreigners. They just had to hire a few drummers to recite Tang poems.

Li Yixing pulled Zhe De with a look of embarrassment and said, "Lao Zhe, what should we do? What kind of work should we do for a while? Singing? Dancing? Even the sons and daughters can't do it. I think we are our own people, so we have nothing to do. There are so many fancy things coming.”

Zhe Deqing also couldn't laugh or cry. To be honest, this is where Yang Ye went, otherwise they would not have dared to leave the frontline troops to participate in any activities. After all, it was not easy for the Song Dynasty to organize such a visit of all nations to the DPRK. I heard that even What in the far west...the Satsuma Kingdom?They all sent envoys.

They thought that at such a critical moment, it would not be good if the people sent were of low level, so they hurriedly handed over the military affairs and rushed back with their own soldiers. After all, the opportunity was rare, and as representatives of the party members, they also participated Blended.

As a result, naturally I brought nothing and prepared nothing.

I never imagined that His Highness would actually do something like this. What did you want them to show you?
Zhe Deke could only say: "We are different from them. We are still helping the Song Dynasty fight the war."

"Ah!" Yang Chongxun interrupted: "Can you speak? What does it mean to help the Song Dynasty fight the war? What does it mean to share the worries of my master? Can this damn girl use the word "help"? We are loyal!"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, loyal, loyal."

"So, why do we need to do those fancy things? Will the soldiers be fascinated by Tang poetry? If not, teach them a few words. We just put on the armor and go swimming. This is called returning in triumph. How can we do it with them? Is it the same thing?”

The two of them nodded and decided to just do it. They asked their soldiers to put on their armor, pick up their weapons, and walked around in the car. They recited the famous Liangzhou poem on the frontier in unison: Grape wine, luminous cup, want to drink pipa. Immediately urge you, Lord Don’t laugh, lying drunk on the battlefield, how many people have fought in ancient times.

The people of Kaifeng naturally knew that the Dangxiang people were fighting for Song Zhengliang. Indeed, as Yang Chongxun said, everyone regarded them as their own people rather than outsiders, and they burst into warm cheers. Although, on their side, During the conquest of Liang, Zhao Guangmei also paid a huge price to aid in the construction of Sizhou.

As a result, the representatives from Xiazhou and Fuzhou in front of me were just reciting poems. As they were reciting, they realized, hey?That's not right, why doesn't this Linzhou guy play his cards according to the routine?
I saw Yang Chongxun standing high on the float, beating gongs and drums himself, and shouting loudly: "Which grape wine is better? Just drink Linzhou Shachang Zui, Shachang Zui, Linzhou wine, our own wine from the Song Dynasty, Mellow and delicious, not overpowering.”

Then, he actually started throwing small packets of wolfberry wrapped in paper down from the car one by one.

"Linzhou wolfberry can strengthen yang and nourish the kidneys. It is plump and of the best quality. When drinking wolfberry, look for Linzhou wolfberry."

Zhe Deku: “…………”

Li Yixing: “…………”

Shameless, shameless, so shameless.

Wolfberry and wine are the common industries of the three of them. To put it bluntly, at least there is no differentiated competition between the three of them. They all produce similar things. The ones in Linzhou sell more, but the ones in Xiazhou and Fuzhou are not the same. Want to sell less?
Shameless, so shameless.

Let the two of them recite Liangzhou Ci in the front, and he will advertise at the end. This person... This person was not like this before!It must be Yang Ye. After Yang Ye returned, Yang Chongxun became a bad student.

He also looked less and less like a military governor.

It just so happened that they both valued their status and couldn't learn enough.

In fact, he really doesn't care about this Linzhou matter now, leaving it all to Yang Ye, who is his eldest brother. On the contrary, it is precisely because of Yang Ye's relationship that his relationship with Song Dynasty is indeed not good. , Li's family is closer, and it is probably not surprising to say that he also wants to unite his country into the dynasty like Wu Yueguo.

After Dangxiang, including the Jurchens, Ugu people, Bohai people, Gaochang Uighurs, etc., they all performed. Although they did not make any preparations, they could not be said to be good at singing and dancing, but they were aliens. These people were relatively Chinese. De Qian, the clothes and everything are very different from those in the Central Plains. Even if they stand in the car and wave and giggle, the people of Kaifeng quite agree with them.

Some bold girls even threw baskets of flowers on the car. Of course, most of the so-called bold girls were prostitutes. There might be addresses in the flowers, and it is not ruled out that some people just want to taste a foreign country. There is no good solution to the style. The social atmosphere in the early Song Dynasty was still extremely open.

In the palace, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangmei stood side by side at the highest point, watching the parade of floats from a distance. They were filled with emotions for a while. Zhao Kuangyin's hands were clasped behind his back and clenched into fists.

"It's so beautiful that all nations can wear it. Third brother, your idea of ​​a float parade is great. It's great."

"Brother, the main event is coming soon."

"The highlight? Haha, Ambassador Liao."

While talking, all the civil and military officials crowded forward with expectation. Although it was rude, they couldn't care less. Zhao Kuangyin did not blame him. Even the maids and eunuchs in the palace climbed up to the attic one after another. Go, I don’t know if a few people will fall to death, and the Queen and the Queen don’t care.

The people along the street were all holding their breath and concentrating, enthusiastic yet quiet.

Because the Liao delegation is about to go on a tour.

Although the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty are still at war, anyone with a discerning eye can actually see that the Liao Kingdom is now at the end of its strength. Unless it is at the end of its strength, it will definitely not be able to hold on in the northwest, otherwise it will never be possible to send envoys Come here to show off to Da Song.

To put it bluntly, they are here to seek peace.

This is the advantage of attacking the northwest instead of attacking Yanyun. If it is to attack Youzhou, there is actually nothing to say. No matter how stupid and incompetent Yelujing is, he has already mobilized a million troops to go south, which is the core of the Liao Kingdom. Interests, but Northwest...

This made the Liao Kingdom extremely uncomfortable.

Moreover, the ordinary people of the Liao Kingdom could not pass that test, because after all, what the Song Kingdom wanted was only Ganzhou or Liangzhou. One was the territory of the Uighurs and the other was the territory of the Tubo people. The common people would naturally think: What the hell! Why fight to death for the Uighurs and Tubo people?Why?what is the benefit?Burning, killing and looting?Still not giving in?Then why do you delay me from herding sheep?It’s not the time of farming now.

If this kind of battle doesn't go smoothly, Yelujing will be the emperor.

The Liao Kingdom really did not want to engage in large-scale mobilization unless it was absolutely necessary. This thing was very damaging to the vitality.

Moreover, now the Ugu Jurchen Bohai people have specially sent envoys to lick the Song Dynasty. The meaning is very clear. If there is a big mobilization, then we have to be cautious and cautious.

As a result, everyone naturally became extremely excited: Will the envoys from the Liao Kingdom who came with requests also get on the floats to parade and dance?
Does this so-called coming of all nations to the DPRK count as the Liao Kingdom or not?

To be honest, if the envoys from the Liao Kingdom could get on the carriage and dance, sing songs, etc., and make everyone happy, then it wouldn't be difficult to discuss things like withdrawing troops.

In Honglu Temple, all the diplomatic envoys also looked at the small group of Khitan people, and all their eyes were staring at them with bright lights.

Liao, will you get on the train?
After all, Zhao Guangmei forced them to perform and dance, which was a bit domineering, but others didn't care about professing vassalage to Song Dynasty. In fact, everyone was happy with the slight humiliation and didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but this was the Liao Kingdom...

"What? What are you looking at me for?"

Yelu Yanmu, as the official historian, was furious and couldn't help scolding: "What are you doing? Do we, the brothers of Liao and Song, still want the warriors of Daliao to flatter Song like you? Do you want to please me in every possible way?"

"Oh~"

All the envoys couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"Hey~"

When Xiao Siwen, the deputy envoy, saw this, he let out a long sigh and said, "Since Third Young Master is unwilling, let me handle this matter."

As he said that, regardless of everyone's surprised looks, he decided to get on the float himself.

Yelu Yanmu was so angry that he shouted: "Xiao Siwen, you... what are you going to do? You are representing our Daliao national character now. Think clearly, do you want to surrender to the Song people? I, Daliao, control With millions of strings, why should you be afraid of the power of the Song Dynasty? Believe it or not, I will chop you down?"

Xiao Siwen was annoyed when he heard this, but instead he looked at Yelu Yanmu with sympathy and said: "Third Young Master, if your father is really not afraid of the power of the Song Dynasty, why would he send you here? Some heads should be lowered when they should be lowered. , so that you can see the road in front of you clearly."

After that, he ignored the third young master of Yelu House again and said calmly: "Let's go. There is no need to be as flattering as others. Just wave to the people along the street."

(End of this chapter)