Fu Song

Zhang Yuan, who is full of white hair, looks extremely energetic, with a red face and a loud voice, but Ren Duozhong, who is younger than him, looks really old, and he is huddled in the chair. It's already warmed up, and most of the people present have changed into jackets, but he is still wrapped in a thick fur robe.

Or for someone like Zhang Yuan, power is his stimulant.

In the vast area under the control of the Western Army, he is the well-deserved No.1 under Xiao Ding.

Even another Tuoba, who is also good at internal politics, can't shake his position.

"Business must be done, of course, must be done."

Zhang Yuan expressed his support for the envoy sent by Yelumin to ask for the reopening of border trade and peaceful coexistence.

"Prime Minister, right now Yelumin wants to attack the Black Khanate in an all-round way. Now, it is a good opportunity for us to contact the Black Khanate to attack them together. Why are we going to give up instead?" Xin Jian was rather dissatisfied: "The Liao thief A wolf with ambition, who knows that he won't come back and fight against us after taking down Black Khan completely?"

"Heihan has already collapsed!" Tuoba Yangwei shook his head and said, "We took advantage of this opportunity to regain Yanqi, Qiuci and other places, and ensured that the entire Xizhou returned to our hands. Yelumin misjudged the strength of the Black Khanate and overestimated the strength of the Black Khanate. The backbone of the Black Khanate had been broken in the battle of Hengluosi. What benefits can we get from joining hands with the mighty Khanate?"

Xin Jian turned to look at Xiao Ding who was sitting at the top: "My lord, what do you say? Anyway, I don't think Yelumin can be trusted."

Xiao Ding said: "This time, I tend to trust Yelumin."

"How to say?"

"Hei Khan is dead, and Yelumin's ambition is obviously not as simple as taking down Hei Khan!" Xiao Ding said: "Now he can almost completely digest Dong Hei Khan, but the situation of the West Hei Khan on the other side is very different. It is much more complicated. If he wants to swallow it, he will inevitably have friction with countries such as Huacizimo and Selzhu. At this time, he does not want to have any more disputes with us, and even wants to develop friendly relations with us and do business. , to be his powerful logistical support to a certain extent, it is naturally good."

Xin Jian laughed: "But why should we agree to him?"

Ren Duozhong, who was curled up on the chair, chuckled: "Of course it is based on the strength in his hands. If he does not go well in the West Black Khanate and cannot get any practical benefits, and has to retreat, then we will Wouldn't it be a big headache again! Beating the child on a rainy day, anyway, I have nothing to do, and then I will fight with us again. In my opinion, it is better to promise him and let him go over there to do things, How can Huacizimo and Sai Erzhu be so easy to bully? And now that he has defeated Heihan in one fell swoop, people have raised their vigilance against him, so it will be even more difficult."

"But have you ever thought about it? If he really gets things done there, wouldn't we be more threatened? At that time, he was even stronger!" Xin Jian still insisted: "The enemy's enemy , are friends, we can unite with Huacizimo or Hanerzhu to deal with Yelumin together.”…

"An enemy's enemy is not necessarily a friend!" Xiao Ding shook his head, "A few years ago our caravan went out, but we did not suffer less from them."

Zhang Yuan continued: "Besides, Yelumin wants to continue going west. It is easy to stretch out his claws, but it is also easy to get stuck in that quagmire. Why did we stop going west after we won Xizhou? Because the strength cannot keep up. Although the huge Liao Kingdom is behind Yelumin, the resources he can mobilize are only the Northwest Recruitment Envoy under his command. The focus of the entire Liao Kingdom is still to destroy the Song Kingdom. Therefore, he may not be able to win. If he loses, it will be a good thing for us."

"It's best if he and the guy on the west side lose both!" Tuoba Yangwei also laughed.

"So now it is a good choice for us to do business with them!" Ren Duozhong said: "In the past two years, our life has been really difficult. The trade route to the west has been cut off, and the trade with the east has been blocked by Liu Quanyi, Qu Zhen and the others. Block it, and Li Chun is even more insidious, now there is an opportunity to reopen the trade route to the west, we can't let it go."

"We did business with Yelumin, and even helped him expand in the west. How can we tell Jiangning?" Xin Jian was a little puzzled.

"Why did you talk to Jiangning?" Tuoba Yangwei snorted coldly: "Does our Great Xia King need to explain to them? We must survive first before we can talk about other things. Now we are facing Yelumin of Liao Kingdom and Yelumin. The double pressure of Yeluhuan has held back hundreds of thousands of troops from the Liao Kingdom, and it is worthy of the help Chongwen has given us over the years! As for the future, we still have to wait and see. We have our own interests, don’t we?”

Xin Jian blinked and looked at Xiao Ding, but Xiao Ding turned his eyes to his son Xiao Jing who was standing beside him.

In a blink of an eye, Xiao Jing was already there.

Over the past few years, since the age of 14, Xiao Jing has been working in the army, and then transferred to the local government for training. This year, he just returned to the palace to serve as the master secretary. He was actually his father's confidential secretary.

This also allowed him to enter the core of the Western Army.

Seeing his father looking at him at this moment, he coughed lightly and said, "Father, everyone, in my opinion, business can naturally be done, but there are still precautions that should be taken."

"Isn't this nonsense?" Xiao Ding said dissatisfiedly. "Uncles and uncles here, I don't want to hear you speak plainly. You can say whatever you think in your heart."

"Yes!" Xiao Jing took a step forward and said, "I was thinking, why do we have to choose between Song and Liao? Even if we had to choose, I don't think it is now. For them, We are the bargaining chip that can change the strength comparison between the two sides, so we can sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and when it comes to the critical moment, can't we just choose the stronger one?"

Hearing this, Xiao Ding sneered, "Childish!"

Xiao Jing blushed, and was about to refute, but Zhang Yuan smiled and said, "My lord, we must choose the weak one!"

"Why choose the weak one?"...

"Because among the three parties, we are the weakest!" Zhang Yuan spread his hands and said, "We choose to favor Jiangning now because once the Liao Kingdom destroys them, the next target is us. On the contrary, if Jiangning destroys the Liao Kingdom , How can they let us dominate a corner?"

"But in this case, why did we agree to do business with Yelumin?"

"Because Yelumin didn't promise, he might come back and fight us!" Zhang Yuandao: "We can handle him, even with Yeluhuan, but if we fight like this, we What is left? So, as the weak side, what we have to do is to assess the situation. For us, there are no permanent enemies, nor permanent allies! The most important thing is that everything we do must be It is in our own interest to live carefully in the cracks and develop ourselves secretly. We have room for development, but these places are too complicated and need us to spend more time to integrate slowly. "

Xiao Jing nodded thoughtfully.

Xiao Ding glanced at everyone present, and said: "This matter should be done according to what the Prime Minister said. Erlang once said that if a country wants to develop, both force and financial resources are indispensable. The commercial route to the west is naturally good, but we also need to connect with the Central Plains. Recently, Li Chun on Qinfeng Road's intention to plot Shaanxi Road has been clearly revealed. I am afraid that his idea will also hit us. , Zhang Cheng went down the mountain and entered the Jingzhao Mansion, which is also a difficult force for us to figure out."

Everyone nodded.

Speaking of the current surrounding situation of the Western Army, it is really very bad.

In addition to the Liao Kingdom, there is also the Jin Kingdom of Liu Quanyi, which is naturally an enemy.

Li Chun nominally obeyed Jiang Ning, but this man's intention to become a local emperor couldn't be concealed no matter what.The sudden growth of Zhang Cheng's power is not a good thing for the Western Army.

One must know that Zhang Cheng's Lao Tzu and tens of thousands of troops were all in the hands of the Western Army.

"The Prime Minister should worry more about economic matters. Yang Wei, I have another matter to entrust to you!"

"My lord, please order!"

"You take Jing'er to Jiangning together!" Xiao Ding said: "Go and see what kind of situation Jiangning is like. I heard people say that it is better to go and see in person to have a deeper understanding!"

"To Jiangning?" Xiao Jing was stunned, it was a short journey from Xingqing to Jiangning, and it would take half a year to come and go.

"Don't you want to go see your second uncle?" Xiao Ding said with a smile, "You have never seen your little sister. She is just ten years old this year. As an older brother, you should go there yourself."

"Yes!" Xiao Jing nodded.

"Yangwei, I won't say much else, you go and have a look, turn around, I believe that when you come back, you can give everyone an accurate information, what should we do next!" Xiao Ding Yangwei to Tuoba road.

"Yes, my lord." Tuoba bowed proudly.

"Being burdened with millions of people's lives and future, every step must be taken with carelessness. Any wrong decision of ours will ruin not only our own wealth and lives, but also the countless people under our command. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s nothing to ask for money or officials. Even some people do some very bad things. I just don’t know. But on this matter, I hope that everyone must unite Together, use a unified attitude towards the outside world, among the three major forces, we are the weakest in the first place, if there is another internal disagreement, then we will really let it be mermaid!"...

"Don't worry, my lord!" Everyone in the room stood up and said in unison.

"Xu Shen!" Xiao Ding turned his head to look at Xu Shen, Director of Jing'an: "The previous things will be written off, and from now on, if there is any connection with some parties in private, don't blame me for turning your face and denying others. How many years old brother, don't force me to do unbearable things."

Everyone is awe-inspiring.

Waving his hand, Xiao Ding turned around and walked inside.

People in the room look at me and I look at you, some people's faces are not very good-looking.

"Let's go, let's go! Do your own things well!" Zhang Yuan said coldly: "The prince has already spoken, if you still can't do it well, you can't do it, then don't blame it for being unpredictable." .”

Zhang Yuan wanted to kill him a long time ago, but Xiao Ding is a person who is extremely nostalgic, and in his opinion, these people have not crossed a certain red line, and they have been patient.

Now Xiao Ding has finally made up his mind, if there are people who don't know good from bad, and can't clean up their hands quickly, then it's hard to say that the knife will be stained red.

Back in the backyard of the palace, Gao Qi was watering the vegetable field with her sleeves rolled up.

The green vegetables are growing very well, and it is very gratifying to look at.

A cihua cat was lazily lying on the ridge of the field basking in the sun, when it saw Xiao Ding approaching, it got up and walked over, rubbing against his legs.

Bending down to pick up the raccoon cat, Xiao Ding sat down on the ridge of the field and sighed.

"Business is not going well?" Gao Qi smiled and poured out a ladle of water.

"We people, I still hope that we can stand on our own and become a force that stands up to Song and Xia!" Xiao Ding was a little distressed: "Our Prime Minister is the biggest driving force behind these people, and now I'm afraid it's yours. My son was also persuaded by Zhang Yuan."

"I don't want you to be an emperor!" Gao Qi shook her head and said, "This is not a good job. Dalang, you were the one who established the Western Army. It's not up to you to decide everything. You just refuse to do it. What can they do?"

Xiao Ding glanced at his wife, "Look at what you said, is this the daughter of Duke Bao's family? It is true that the Western Army is headed by me, but no matter when, I can't make a decision with one word! To be honest, now I'm really tired. It's really difficult for me to maintain this huge situation."

Gao Qi threw the ladle into the bucket and sat side by side with Xiao Ding.

The current military strength of the Western Army is indeed very strong, but the current composition of the Western Army is also extremely complicated. People of dozens of races are distributed on this vast land including Xizhou and Qingtang Plateau. There are quite a few problems with cohesion.Many people attached themselves to the Western Army purely out of fear of Xiao Ding's powerful force.

The iron kites and Bubazi that belonged to Xiao Ding alone had less than 3 people. They were the last deterrent force of the Western Army, but it was the armies of various tribes that constituted the most powerful strike force of the Western Army and could attack at any time.

For Xiao Ding, he naturally wanted to fight side by side with Erlang, but for his subordinates, this was not the case.

When the vast majority of his subordinates are unwilling to submit to the banner of the Great Song Dynasty, even Xiao Ding cannot forcefully change their will.

If this is really the case, the Western Army will disappear in smoke.

"You three brothers and sisters, hey, what should I say!" Gao Qi looked at her husband, full of helplessness.