Song Gexing

Chapter 3: Playing coquettishly and showing off the corner of history
"Brother, do you really want to study?"

"Reading is hard work!"

Empress Cao avoided practicing martial arts and only talked about studying. Chen Xia understood that it was impossible for her to practice martial arts at her age and stopped talking about it.

He raised his little face, clenched his fist and waved it hard: "My son is not afraid of hardship. There are so many books in dad's study, but I don't know a word of them. I can't even read them."

Maintaining the persona of a little kid, he can indeed be loved by others. Empress Cao laughed and hugged him: "My son is so good, your father doesn't know how happy he is."

Then she kissed his little face and said with a smile: "Mom can promise you to study, but you must also promise mom that you can't be tired anymore. You can only study for one hour a day."

Finally, he got it. How could Chen Xia dare to object? He quickly nodded his head and said "hmm" in agreement.

The happy days have finally begun. Chen Xia, who is no longer so closely watched, can secretly practice her hands besides reading.

Although no one taught him martial arts here, he did learn a few martial arts routines in his previous life. Although they were useless, they could be used to strengthen the martial arts palace.

The martial arts routines of later generations were also compiled by famous masters. They can be regarded as serious traditional martial arts moves. They are useful if others don't use them.

And he must have the character of a child prodigy, because Li Yuanhao will soon rebel and establish the Xixia Kingdom, and the Song Dynasty will lose three consecutive battles to stabilize the northwest. He can't stop it but he also wants to do something.

There have been five wars between Song and Xia in history. In fact, except for the first time when they lost three battles in a row, the Song army won the next four times. If the Liao Kingdom hadn't helped them, Xixia would have been destroyed by the Song Dynasty long ago.

Therefore, Xixia has never been a strong enemy of the Song Dynasty, but the Liao Kingdom was, but Xixia did cause a heavy burden on the Song Dynasty's armaments.

A few days later, the Song Dynasty changed to the Yuan Dynasty, and the short-lived Baoyuan reign appeared on the stage of history. Therefore, Chen Xia was named Zhao Fang in advance (this name will be used later, the ancients usually named boys when they were in school)
"Guan Jia, my eldest brother's intelligence can be called a child prodigy. I ask Guan Jia to hire a good teacher for him. We can't let his qualifications go to waste!"

Empress Cao, who rarely came to Zhao Zhen's place, could no longer bear it on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year and came to him in person to make a request.

Zhao Zhen asked in confusion: "Isn't the Queen teaching my eldest brother how to read? How can I find a teacher who can't read well enough?"

Empress Cao said solemnly: "In just one month, my eldest brother has learned more than 3000 words, and he can read books by himself."

"what!?"

Zhao Zhen, who had been very upset by the news of Li Yuanhao proclaiming himself emperor these days, stood up excitedly when he heard this and asked in surprise.

Empress Cao nodded solemnly to indicate that she was not lying, and Zhao Zhen was so happy that she circled around.

But after pondering for a long time, he still shook his head and said: "The child is too young. Besides, it doesn't make sense to ask the ministers to teach him. It's better to wait and wait for two years."

Empress Cao, who was waiting for him to hire a talented man, was unhappy when she heard this: "There is nothing unjustifiable. The eldest brother is the eldest son of an official family. Why can't the minister teach him if he is so smart?"

Zhao Zhen was afraid of the ministers and did not want to quarrel with his wife, so he had to persuade: "Queen, the eldest brother is so young, shouldn't we parents love him more? If we really hire a teacher, he won't have time to play, and he will be spoiled by the ministers for playing in the future. Criticism, while no one says it’s fun now, you won’t be able to do it when you grow up.”

There was nothing wrong with this. Although Empress Cao was unwilling to do so, she could not refute it and resigned with a grunt.

A small episode spread quickly, and the matter was discussed heatedly among the government and the public for a while, and then it passed. Soon a year passed, and the news of the defeat of Sanchuankou also spread back to Bianjing. "What's wrong, dad? If anyone makes dad angry, my son will beat him!"

That day, the little Zhao Fang walked into Chongzheng Hall with short legs. When he saw Zhao Zhen with an angry face, he asked pretending to be concerned.

Seeing his precious son come in, Zhao Zhen smiled, touched his head lovingly and asked, "Brother, why are you here? If you want to see daddy, you have to wait for daddy to come back."

Chongzheng Hall can also be regarded as the harem, but it is the place where emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty handled political affairs. Ministers often came here to discuss important matters. Today, three big bosses, Wen Yanbo, Fu Bi and Pang Ji, gathered in the hall.

Seeing him coming in, the three of them also stood up to salute, but the Song Dynasty was not like the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the ministers didn't have so many rules for the prince, and even the word "His Royal Highness" was not used.

Like ordinary people, after calling "Da Lang", the three of them watched him interact with the emperor curiously.

With a habitual "hehe", Zhao Fang said sheepishly: "My son just heard it outside the palace. Someone said that Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun surrendered to the enemy. Dad doesn't believe it, right? I don't believe it either."

"Oh!" Fu Bi asked in surprise: "Dalang knows about them? Can you tell me why you don't believe it?"

"Of course. Liu Shi and Liu Shi dared to rush to rescue Yanzhou with only [-] soldiers. Facing Li Yuanhao's [-] troops, they fought to the death for several days. How could such people surrender? If they were afraid of death, they would just delay their march. Just go to the battlefield, Yanzhou is not their defense zone."

Pang Ji nodded in approval and said, "Dalang's words are to the point. It is normal for Liu Ping to be unable to rescue him in Qingzhou. But not only did he go, he also dared to fight even though he knew that the enemy was outnumbered and we would not surrender."

Wen Yanbo agreed, and Fu Bi praised him, which made Zhao Zhen smile. His son had such knowledge when he was less than four years old.

"Daddy knows, go back quickly. Children can't participate in military affairs."

"Yeah, dad, please relax. Xixia is barren. As long as we cut off trade and guard all the main roads, we can make them fall into chaos without a fight."

Zhao Fang resigned obediently, and did not forget to add a few words before leaving. Then he skipped away, and there was a burst of admiration behind him.

Pang Ji even loudly congratulated Zhao Zhen: "The eldest son of the emperor has been famous for his intelligence and famous ministers for a long time. Now I know that this statement is true! To subjugate the enemy's army without fighting is a good person!"

A few months later, in August of the second year of Baoyuan, Zhao Zhen changed the Yuan Dynasty again to the first year of Kangding. Han Qi was sent to the northwest. Before leaving, he recommended Fan Zhongyan, who had been demoted for several years.

The three great civil servants and generals of the Song Dynasty gathered in the northwest. Han and Fan were Pang Ji's deputies and began to prepare for a counterattack against Xixia. The famous Battle of Haoshuichuan was about to begin.

That afternoon, Zhao Zhen came to the Queen's Rouyi Palace. Zhao Fang, who was reading a book by himself, stood up with a smile on his face.

Before he could speak, Zhao Zhen asked curiously: "What book is Brother reading? You are so serious."

"hey-hey!"

Zhao Fang gave a silly giggle, Yang Yang held the book in his hand and said, "Dad is here. My son is reading "Taiping Huanyu Ji" and "Yuanhe County Map Chronicles"."

Zhao Zhen looked at the book in his hand, then at another book spread out on the table, and asked curiously: "Why do you think of reading these? Don't you read the Six Classics first?"

(End of this chapter)