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

Li Yuanhao, with his Iron Harriers and another two thousand light cavalry, set out from Youzhou to reinforce, gathering troops from Xiazhou and Youzhou along the way. When they were about to reach Suizhou, they were ambushed by Song soldiers ten miles away from the city.

The Song army came prepared, and after a fierce battle, Li Yuanhao fled in panic with the remaining troops.

Lu Changqing led his troops all the way to Youzhou, robbed the cattle, horses and other livestock in the city, and turned around and fled with his men.

Li Shibin was confused and asked Lu Changqing why he didn't just occupy Youzhou while running away on his horse.

Lu Changqing said: "Xia Kingdom cannot have such a small army. Their reinforcements must have arrived. With only a few thousand of us now, Youzhou may not be able to be defended."

"We can continue the ambush!"

"No need. Our main purpose is to attract firepower. Qin Fenglu should have succeeded."

By the time Li Yuanhao and Zhang Yuan reunited and returned to Youzhou, Lu Changqing and the others had already run away.

Li Yuanhao was so angry that his mouth was twisted. He regretted deeply that he had not listened to Zhang Yuan before. Not only did Suizhou get lost and Youzhou was robbed, but his invincible Iron Harrier Corps was almost wiped out.

Just when Li Yuanhao was discussing with Zhang Yuan whether to retake Suizhou, bad news came from the front line again.

While the main force of the Xia army was rescuing Suizhou, Zhe Jimin led his troops deep into the interior, breaking through more than 30 villages along the way and capturing more than 4,000 cattle, horses, camels and other livestock.

Li Yuanhao's eyes blurred and he almost fainted.

What's wrong with the Song people? Isn't stealing things their strong point?

The spoils of war this time were very rich. Not to mention the looted livestock, a lot of Xia soldiers' equipment and weapons were also seized.

Fan Zhongyan wanted to keep Lu Changqing in Suizhou temporarily, but Lu Changqing refused.

She was very busy and couldn't waste time here. She had to push the border forward while Li Yuanhao was catching his breath.

"Li Yuanhao has lost twice in a row. He will not make any big moves in the near future. What we need to do next is to continue to block trade with Xia."

Fan Zhongyan asked: "What if Li Yuanhao becomes desperate and does something desperate?"

Lu Changqing thought for a moment and said, "Try to send people to sneak into Xia territory, or bribe the Xia people and let them pass on information at any time."

Lu Changqing changed the subject and said, "Actually, fighting is not a big deal. What I fear most is Li Yuanhao's peace talks and the court's attitude."

"Is the guard afraid that the imperial court will agree to peace talks?"

Lu Changqing nodded.

"If Li Yuanhao really requests to send envoys to negotiate peace, what should we do?"

"I disagree. We should continue to blockade the trade between the two countries and cut off diplomatic exchanges. Li Yuanhao can rebel or make peace whenever he wants. How can it be so easy?"

"I understand what the guard wants to do. In fact, my original proposal was to use the country's strength to bring down the Xia Kingdom. I was just afraid that someone in the court would want to negotiate peace."

Lu Changqing knew who Fan Zhongyan was talking about. He was busy forming his own small group and had no time to worry about things outside.

"Deputy Envoy, don't worry about this. Prime Minister Lu is so old, he won't live for many days."

Fan Zhongyan coughed desperately, "The guards are careful with their words. Be careful that the walls have ears and others may overhear you."

There was also a grudge between Fan Zhongyan and Lu Yijian. When Zhao Zhen wanted to depose Queen Guo, Fan Zhongyan pleaded for her. Then, at the instigation of Lu Yijian, Fan was demoted to Muzhou.

In the third year of Jingyou, Fan was dissatisfied with Lü Yijian's control of the government, his cultivation of cliques and appointment of cronies, so he presented "Chart of Officials" to Zhao Zhen, criticizing Lü Yijian for his use of power politics.

Not to be outdone, Lu Yijian fought back, accusing Fan Zhongyan of "overstepping his authority to speak, forming cliques, and alienating the emperor and his ministers."

Quarrels among civil servants were all round-based games. After Lü Yijian finished scolding, Fan Zhongyan fought back. This time he may have scolded too harshly, so he was demoted from the capital to Raozhou by Zhao Zhen again.

Historically, Fan Zhongyan was very well-regarded. He was proficient in military, politics and literature, and he was able to let go of past grudges against his colleagues who had suppressed him.

But people have emotions. If someone dares to do small things to him behind his back again and again, Lu Changqing will curse him in his heart even if he can't kill him.

Therefore, Lu Changqing felt that Fan Zhongyan would be happy to see Lu Yijian's downfall.

Lu Changqing waved his hand indifferently, "It's okay, I'm not afraid of him. If he dares to make things difficult for me, I will let him know what it means that those with bare feet are not afraid of those with shoes."

"Actually, things are fine with Prime Minister Lu. I'm just worried that the Liao Kingdom will put pressure on the emperor and he might compromise." Fan Zhongyan said in a worried tone.

Lu Changqing wanted to frown when he heard the word "official".

"Pressure? How to put pressure? We have won the war, you can't ask us to continue to send tribute, right? Is it time for Xia Country to send tribute to us this time?"

Everyone in the court knew that Li Yuanhao's expedition to the south was inseparable from the support of the Liao Kingdom. He wanted to take advantage of both the Song and Xia countries and make a fortune from the wars in other countries.

"The Liao Kingdom may not be happy to see us doing so well."

"It's no use if you can't stand us doing well. You have to be tough. Otherwise, do you really think we are soft persimmons that can be easily manipulated?"

When two countries go to war, it's not like two people are fighting each other. I've never seen the winner give money to the loser.

Afterwards, Xia Song summoned Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and Pang Ji to Weizhou to discuss strategies to deal with Xia's army.

The result of the discussion was to attack and defend at the same time, choose advantageous locations to build fortresses and castles bit by bit into the territory of Western Xia, and build solid military strongholds.

If you want to attack, I will rely on my strongholds to fight you. If you don't come, I will continue to advance. Anyway, I will not engage in large-scale field battles or battles with you.

This is the fort method.

While these people were discussing the battle plan, taking advantage of the fact that Li Yuanhao was seriously injured, generals from four routes led their troops to advance the northwestern border of the Song Dynasty forward a lot.

Li Yuanhao could no longer sit still as the borders were lost one after another. He quickly sent envoys to the Liao Kingdom to seek help.

After receiving the letter, Emperor Xingzong of Liao immediately wrote a letter himself and asked the messenger to deliver it to the seriously ill Zhao Zhen.

Then the court began to argue again. Some people felt that the war between the two countries would be a waste of money and manpower, and that the people of both countries would suffer. Since the other party was willing to negotiate peace, they should just agree to it.

The opponents believed that Li Yuanhao was a traitor and a traitor who deserved to be punished. The Song army had won consecutive victories, so they should take advantage of the victory to destroy Xia in one fell swoop.

Zhao Zhen was not dead yet, and Cao Danshu had no power to make decisions. She sat behind the curtain and watched the ministers arguing in the court. After half a month of arguing, they still could not come to a conclusion.

Seeing the forts being lost one after another, Li Yuanhao urged Liao Xingzong to continue to put pressure on the Song court, while also not forgetting to write a letter to Zhao Zhen.

After Lu Changqing received the letter from Cao Danshu asking her to return to Beijing immediately, she rode back to Beijing overnight.

Zhang Maoze brought Lu Changqing to Funing Palace. After not seeing him for several months, Zhao Zhen had become emaciated and unrecognizable.

Seeing Lu Changqing arrive, Zhao Zhen waved at her despite the severe pain in his body, and said weakly: "Fuying, Xiwen said that it was thanks to you before. If you hadn't come up with the plan to set up an ambush, we wouldn't have been able to inflict heavy damage on the Xia army again and force Li Yuanhao to negotiate peace."

Lu Changqing stood beside the bed, his face full of worry, "Master, how is your health?"

Zhao Zhen shook his head dejectedly. "Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about business. Li Yuanhao wants to negotiate peace and is willing to pay tribute to our dynasty as the king, but our dynasty must give Xia 7 taels of silver, 15 pieces of silk, and 3 kilograms of tea every year. The two countries will reopen and resume mutual trade, and they will be allowed to appoint their own officials."

"I can't agree to this. We won this time. Even if we need to give money or things, it should be Li Yuanhao who gives us them."

Zhao Zhen pulled up a weak smile. Due to the torture of illness, only a layer of skin was left on his face. When he smiled, his face was full of wrinkles and did not look good at all.

"I know you won't agree, but if you don't agree, I'm afraid Liao will use military force."

"Sir, we can't compromise so quickly, otherwise the Liao Kingdom will think we are easy to bully and take the opportunity to increase the burden, forcing us to cede land and pay compensation."

"It's going to be delayed again. How long will it take?" Zhao Zhen took three breaths to say each sentence. "I'm afraid I won't see the day when the world is at peace."

"Sir, you will get better soon," the murderer consoled him.

Zhao Zhen smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I know my body well, I'm afraid it won't get better."

The best thing to do at this time would be to pretend to be sad and cry, but Lu Changqing couldn't muster up that kind of tragic emotion, so he could only lower his head and say nothing.

"What if Liao attacks us? We can't afford to fight on two fronts."

Lu Changqing raised his head and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry too much. The war in the northwest has been temporarily stopped. Liao Kingdom dare not easily use troops against our dynasty. It is not impossible for Xia Kingdom to negotiate peace, but we cannot be led by them. This time we have to make them pay, otherwise there is no need to talk."

"Take something?"

"Sir, we need horses and weapons to defend against Liao, so we need Xia to offer horses and iron as tribute."

Zhao Zhen thought that what Lu Changqing said was simply a fantasy, "Li Yuanhao would not agree."

"Then keep fighting, keep wasting time. In the end, the one who can no longer outlast the enemy will definitely be Li Yuanhao."

"No, no, what if Yelu Zongzhen and Li Yuanhao join forces to attack our dynasty?"

"If our dynasty is destroyed, the next to be destroyed will surely be the Xia Kingdom. Li Yuanhao must know the principle of the lips and teeth being cold.

Besides, there have always been disputes on the border between Liao and Xia. Li Yuanhao has been secretly instigating the Tanguts in Liao to break away from Liao rule, and Yelu Zongzhen has been sending troops to suppress the Tanguts' rebellion. These two people are not close enough to wear the same pants. "

Zhao Zhen closed his eyes tiredly, and after the pain in his body eased, he spoke: "It is too difficult to ask Xia Kingdom to pay tribute to horses and iron ore. Not to mention Li Yuanhao, even Yelu Zongzhen will not agree."

"Negotiations are necessary. Didn't our dynasty negotiate peace with the Liao Kingdom step by step when we signed the Treaty of Chanyuan?"

As expected, after learning about the Song Dynasty's request, Li Yuanhao refused without a second thought.

Lu Changqing: Okay, then let’s continue to sever diplomatic ties and impose economic sanctions. After all, it’s not them who are short of daily necessities.

The "peace elites" in the court were unhappy to see that Zhao Zhen always obeyed Lu Changqing's words. The censorship department received memorials scolding Lu Changqing every day, and someone even gave her a nickname - Lingxuan.

Thank you, this is a compliment to her that she will become the prime minister in the future.

Seeing that Lu Changqing was so rampant and dared to appear in Zhao Zhen's Funing Palace all day long even though he was scolded like a dog by the censors, the leader of Peace Elite, Lu Yijian, was so angry that he scolded Lu Changqing in front of Zhao Zhen, saying that he "fawned on the master and harbored evil intentions."

Lu Changqing: helplessly spreading his hands.JPG

In terms of charm, she is no match for this old man who is over three-fifths of a century old. He has served as prime minister three times in total, and Song Renzong loves him better than his own father.

Lu Changqing is a person with no morals at all. He doesn't even know how to write the four words "respect the old and love the young", especially someone like Lao Deng who likes to take advantage of others.

"Prince Lu, I am not the only one in the court who disagrees with the peace treaty with Xia. Why are you all pointing fingers at me and scolding me? Is it because you can't afford to offend ministers like Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi, etc.? Or do you think I'm easier to bully because I'm a woman?"

Lu Changqing walked up to Lu Yijian with a smile on his face, which formed a sharp contrast with the other party who was so angry that he was fuming.

"Mr. Lu is already quite old, don't you even know what 'negotiating peace' means? You give the Xia Kingdom whatever it wants, so whose subject are you exactly?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Lü Yijian shouted angrily, and then he apologized to Zhao Zhen, "My lord, that's not what I meant. I just thought that since Xia is willing to pay tribute to our dynasty, why don't we just sit down and talk about the peace treaty? If we take a tough attitude like now, it may force Xia to join forces with Liao to invade the border of our Song Dynasty."

After saying that, he did not forget to glare at Lu Changqing fiercely.

Zhao Zhen had woken up by now, but he was in so much pain that he no longer had the energy to take care of state affairs.

"Listen to Fu Ying and discuss it later."

"Your Majesty!" Lü Yijian exclaimed, "This matter concerns the country and the people. How can it be decided by a woman?"

Lu Changqing really wanted to slap Lu Yijian twice. This old man was like this in history. In order to consolidate his position, he formed cliques for personal gain. In order to better control the government, he "wanted to let Your Majesty know that the position of assistant prime minister belonged to Yijian", and recommended some mediocre people to serve as officials in the court.

Whenever border affairs were discussed, he kept silent and evaded responsibility. He stuck to old conventions in selecting generals and failed to select good ones. Moreover, he was afraid that the Song Dynasty would lose a war with the Xia and Liao countries and his position as prime minister would be unstable. He always actively advocated peace talks with the Western Xia and Liao countries, which further increased the burden on the people.

"Why are you so excited, Lord Lu? I didn't say I won't talk to the envoys from Xia."

Lu Yijian's beard was twisted with anger. "Didn't you say that we should continue to close the market and not trade with Xia?"

Lu Changqing asked in return, "Li Yuanhao rejected our conditions, shouldn't we continue to close the trade between the two countries?"

Lu Yijian said angrily, "What are your conditions? 50,000 silver coins, 5,000 horses, and 100,000 catties of pig iron every year. What can he give?"

"If he can't give it to us, we can talk. He saw it and directly refused. He didn't even want to continue the negotiation. This shows that Li Yuanhao's attitude is not right. He has no intention of sincerely submitting to us. He doesn't respect our people, so we naturally don't have to be nice to him."

"Also, it was Li Yuanhao who took the initiative to seek peace, and we won the war. We should have made the demands, instead of giving whatever Li Yuanhao said.

"There is no war in this world that has been won yet, so it is reasonable to ask the people to pay compensation. Do you understand? Mr. Lu?"

Lü Yijian was so old that he was being "taught" by a young man, which made him feel embarrassed. "You don't need to explain such a simple truth."

"You don't need me to say anything. Please go in, Mr. Lu. Don't stay here and disturb the official while he is recuperating." After saying this, Lu Changqing made a gesture of invitation and began to drive people away.

Seeing that Zhao Zhen had been pretending to be dead with his eyes closed, Lu Yijian was so angry that he left in anger. When he saw Cao Danshu standing under the eaves at the door, he casually bowed and left angrily.

Cao Danshu did not pass anyone on. She waited until Lu Changqing fed the medicine to Zhao Zhen before she walked into the hall.