Quick Wear: I and the Female Match Share the Battle Shirt

Zhao Zhen was not a stupid man. After he came to his senses, he immediately realized that Lu Changqing was rejecting him.

Because of the confidence that his identity as an emperor gave him, he did not take it seriously, but still let Lu Changqing leave.

"Pingfu, send Fuying off."

Pingfu is Zhang Maze's courtesy name. Because he had served Zhao Zhen since a very early age and the two had a very close relationship, Zhao Zhen usually addressed Zhang Maze by his courtesy name.

Zhang Maoze stepped forward to receive the order, and held out his hand to Lu Changqing to lead the way, "Bai Tingxuan, please!"

Lu Changqing kowtowed to Zhao Zhen and left the hall.

Zhang Maze sent Lu Changqing to the gate of Yuhua Palace, and seemed to be hesitant to say something when he left.

Seeing that the other party looked constipated, Lu Changqing said sympathetically, "Zhang Goudang, you can say whatever you want."

"Bai Tingxuan is a smart man. He must have figured out what the emperor meant just now."

"To be honest, one of the reasons why I entered the palace was because I didn't want to get married and have children."

Zhang Maoze continued, "So you have no intention of becoming a concubine in the harem?"

"Yes. If the government asks, please tell me the truth."

According to the History of Song Dynasty, Zhang Maze had good character, but historical materials are too subjective. Except for a few who were so weird that they could not be called human beings, the rest were almost all upright gentlemen.

Lu Changqing didn't expect Zhang Maoze to speak well of her in front of Zhao Zhen, but she just asked him not to exaggerate and say anything irrelevant.

"Your Majesty is gentle and sincere. If you are willing, your life in the harem will not be worse than that in the Shangshu Palace."

"Emperors have always been fickle. There are so many concubines in the harem now, and there will be more in the future. I don't want to spend my days waiting by the window every night for my beloved."

Zhang Maoze lowered his eyes and apologized to Lu Changqing: "I'm sorry, I was rude."

Lu Changqing shook his head. "If Zhang Goudang has nothing else to do, then I'll go in."

Lu Changqing knew clearly that what Zhang Maze meant was what Zhao Zhen meant. He was asking her whether she was willing to enter his harem.

In ancient times, it was very common for female officials to become concubines, and this was considered normal by emperors. After all, in their eyes, as long as a woman entered the palace, she became the emperor's property.

You can spend your own money as you wish without anyone else's interference.

Moreover, he was the emperor, the feudal leader of this society, with unique privileges. He just took an innocent female official as his concubine. Who would say anything?

Seeing Lu Changqing coming back, Yang Shanjun pulled her aside and asked, "The emperor specially asked you to come over. Is there something special he wants you to do?"

Lu Changqing shook his head innocently, "No, the emperor knew that I could write Feibai calligraphy, so he asked me to write it for him to see."

"and then?"

"No more."

Yang Shanjun was surprised and asked, "That's it?"

Lu Changqing nodded, "That's it."

"The government didn't say anything else?"

Lu Changqing played dumb, "You said my Feibai calligraphy has form but no spirit, is this considered anything else?"

Yang Shanjun looked at Lu Changqing, not knowing how much truth there was in her words.

She had served Zhao Zhen for more than ten years, and she didn't dare to say that she knew his temper very well, but she could guess it.

Lu Changqing's identity was not enough to make Zhao Zhen worry. It was not difficult to guess what the other party wanted to do when he specifically asked a woman who had just entered the palace to meet him alone.

Just when Yang Shanjun thought that their yamen was going to have a concubine, the matter suddenly came to no avail.

Lu Changqing guessed that maybe Zhao Zhen still had some sense of dignity. If the other party was really shameless and insisted on taking her into the harem, then she would give him some respect as soon as possible and let him become a patient with Bai Mingzhou two years in advance.

Time soon arrived at the New Year, and the palace was decorated with lights and colorful lanterns. Lu Changqing, wearing the new clothes that Lin Wenqing had sent from outside the palace, stood outside the Yuhua Palace with Zhang Li'niang and others, watching the fireworks in the distance.

"I wonder how my mother and father are doing? I haven't received any letters from them in four months."

I don't know who spoke first in the crowd, but then suppressed sobs were heard again.

Fireworks bloomed in the night sky one after another. The palace was too deep, and the fire in the distance could not illuminate the Yuhua Palace at all. However, the sound of firecrackers was loud enough, so even if they cried loudly on this festive day of family reunion, the two eunuchs guarding the gate would not notice them.

A new year brings new hope. After studying for half a year, Lu Changqing is finally able to take up his post.

The memorials sent from the Secretariat and the Privy Council had already been divided, and Lu Changqing was mainly responsible for the memorials from the Privy Council.

Most of them were asking for money and food, and the rest were almost all about Northwest military affairs.

Since the second year of Jingyou (1032 AD), Li Yuanhao, who had inherited the throne for more than a year and had not yet sat firmly on the throne, changed his father Li Deming's pro-Song policy and began to frequently harass the Northern Song border.

But there are two main reasons why we lose more than we win.

First, he acted on purpose, each time sending only a small team to raid the thousands or tens of thousands of border guards. It would be difficult not to lose. The reason for doing this was to paralyze the Song court and make it despise them.

The second is that since the founding of the Song Dynasty, it has won over many foreign tribes in the northwest to guard the border for it.

The most well-known of these tribes is the Linzhou Yang clan, also known as the Yang Family Generals to later generations.

In addition, there are the Zhe family of Fuzhou, the Wang family of Fengzhou, the Gao family of Suizhou, and the Li family of Jinmingzhai.

If we talk about which of the five families is the strongest, it is not the well-known Yang family, nor the two powerful Wang and Li families with a population of over 100,000 under their rule, but the Zhe family, which has a small population but many elite soldiers. In terms of achievements, it is the best among the five families.

Except for the Yang family, which is Han Chinese, the rest are all foreign tribes who have guarded the border areas for generations, and they all have a feud with the Western Xia regime.

The reason why these foreign tribes were so loyal to the Song court was because Zhao Zhen trusted the people he employed.

After Liu E's death, Zhao Zhen took power and carried out a major reshuffle in the court, driving all the old ministers who had served Liu E out of the capital. Even so, he did not touch the border tribes at all, which made these families grateful and more loyal to the court.

In 1040 AD, the first Song-Xia War broke out, and the first place where the two sides fought was Li's Jinmingzhai (in today's Yanzhou, Shaanxi).

Of course, this happened two years later. Even if Lu Changqing ran to Zhao Zhen now and told him that Li Yuanhao wanted to rebel and become emperor, he probably wouldn't believe it.

Now the Song court did not take Li Yuanhao seriously at all, thinking that this small vassal state was nothing to be afraid of. However, this tiny country, which was not to be feared, fought a total of five major wars with the Northern Song Dynasty.

They were the reigns of Emperor Renzong, Emperor Yingzong, Emperor Shenzong, Emperor Zhezong and Emperor Huizong, and were finally destroyed by the Mongols in 1227.

Zhao Zhen was unlucky, as he encountered the outbreak of military problems accumulated during the previous thirty years of peace. Of course, the most unlucky ones were the people, as they had to conscript soldiers, collect grain, collect taxes, and even conscript people when a war broke out.

During the Song-Xia War during the reign of Emperor Renzong, the Song army had to recruit soldiers on a large scale in order to make up for the disadvantage in military mobility. In addition, the Liao people in the north also wanted to move south to seize territory, which directly stimulated the number of the Song Dynasty's imperial guards and garrison troops to soar to an astronomical number of more than 1.2 million.