end song

Zhending Mansion, Longxing Temple Palace.

Li Xia turned her head and glanced at Zhang Wenjing, only to see that she swayed slightly, but for a moment she pretended to be calm, and even the posture of her hands looked dignified.

He waved his hand and told the messenger who came to report the details of Baozhou: "Go down first."

"According to the order."

"Your Majesty, several ministers have arrived, and Hao Jing has also been summoned to the side hall to meet you. Will your majesty go to the front hall now?"

"Let them wait, go down."

After a while, Li Xia turned to look at Yan'er and the others, and said, "You guys go down too."

Finally, there were only two people left, so he went over and hugged Zhang Wenjing.

"Cry if you want to cry."

"Not at all." Zhang Wenjing said with red eyes, "I knew before that Brother Nine would not be able to survive. I just thought of the past...he was very good to me when I was young."

"If he wasn't born in this kind of world, he would be a good brother and friend. Don't be too sad."

"I'm not sad either, I'm just worried about my father."

"Don't worry." Li Xia said: "I have arranged for people to go to Yanjing, and I will save them."

Zhang Wenjing, who was about to cry, was very moved, took Li Xia's hand, buried her head in his chest and rubbed it.

This is a very intimate and very dependent action.

Li Xia looked at her and felt that she was like an unguarded little rabbit.

But in fact, someone told him in secret just yesterday, saying that after taking Baoding, the power of the Zhang family is just right now, which means that the Zhang family in Yanjing City is actually not necessary to save, and it is very difficult to save .

At that time, he only replied, "Look farther away."

At this time, after comforting Zhang Wenjing, Li Xia got up and walked to the front hall.

As soon as I went out, there was a gust of cold wind.

It will be the twelfth lunar month soon, and although the capture of Baozhou City is going well, but all factors add up, it is obvious that the full-scale attack on Yanjing will have to wait until the beginning of spring.

And there is still a lot to prepare for this winter.

~~
Walking to the front hall, Li Xia thought about it, but summoned Hao Jing first.

During Hao Jing's detention, he had met many civil and military generals under Li Xia's command. As for how much he felt, only he knew in his heart.

When he saw Li Xia before, he would salute and say, "The foreign minister has seen the Tang Emperor", but today he didn't even call himself "foreign minister", and stood there staring at Li Xia blankly, like an old father.

"Zhang Hongfan is dead." Li Xia said.

After a while, Hao Jingcai said: "The old man's disciples... have died at the hands of His Majesty, there are not a few of them."

"Have I ruined your happiness? Would your life be better without me?"

Hao Jing showed shame and shook his head.

Li Xia said: "Before you said that you didn't want to join me because I would lose, and you were worried that there would be no one to govern the Central Plains. What about now? Do you still think so?"

"The old man would like to ask a few questions first, may I know?"

"Just ask."

"The Tang army is short of food and grass, how do you want to attack Yanjing?"

"With the food stored in Baozhou, my Northern Expedition army can last until March."

"I'm afraid we won't be able to attack Yanjing in March. After all, Yanjing is different from other cities in Hebei..."

"Then why don't you come to ask for peace when the time comes, and ask me what to do when I run out of food."

Hao Jing was taken aback.

He originally thought that Li Xia was going to recruit him this time, and he already hesitated in his heart, considering that if he wanted to surrender, his family would still be in Yanjing.

Unexpectedly, what Li Xia said was "seek peace again", as if he had no intention of soliciting him.

Hao Jing also had a temper, seeing that Li Xia didn't recruit him, his tone became a lot stiffer.

"Then I wonder what His Majesty the Tang Emperor thinks of the peace agreement with the foreign ministers this time?"

"I can consider agreeing, but not the conditions of Kublai Khan."

In fact, Li Xia didn't listen to Kublai Khan's conditions at all, and seemed very insincere.

Only then did he knock on the table and put forward his own conditions.

"To get me to retreat, Kublai Khan must first go to the title of Emperor, to the title of Khan, and become a minister to me. I can make him the king of Mobei. This is the main premise. There are also some small requirements, such as paying tribute..."

Hao Jing looked at Li Xia with surprise and thought in his eyes.

Surprised that Li Xia proposed such an insincere condition, and thought about the meaning of such a condition.

Until then one of the words caught his attention.

"Also, all the old and young members of the Zhang family are still in the hands of Kublai Khan, let him hand them over to me properly."

Hao Jing's eyes moved, and he vaguely figured out something.

……

Three days later, when the details of the covenant proposed by Li Xia were agreed upon, Hao Jing boarded the carriage again and returned north.

It was still escorted by the unknown Tang army general.

This time, Tang Jun escorted Hao Jing to Wusui City, more than [-] miles north of Baozhou City.

When he arrived at the boundary, the general of the Tang army reined in his horse and was about to leave. Hao Jing lifted the curtain of the car and asked, "I have sent you off twice, but I still don't know the name of General Gao?"

"Hahaha, you still don't deserve to know!"

The Tang general laughed, and led the soldiers away in a moment.

General Huang Yu of the Yuan army was furious, and he immediately went forward to Hao Jing and said, "Mr. Hao, I will teach them a lesson in the end."

"Forget it, state affairs are the most important thing."

Hao Jing glanced coldly to the south, then turned his head to look at Wu Sui City ahead, and said, "Take a rest and continue walking."

Wusui City is where Yang Yanzhao, a famous general of the Song Dynasty, stationed troops to fight against the Liao Dynasty. In the Song and Liao battles, the ice city defending against the enemy and the battle of Yangshan all took place here.

Looking south from the city, I saw Baigou not far away.

Baigou is the junction of Song and Liao.

He then thought of the poem that Li Xia had quoted when he met Li Xia this time.

The title of the poem is "Baigou Xing", and there is another sentence in it that "the south of Yishui is Baigou, and the north is the east end of Jiehai".

But if the peace talks between Li Xia and Kublai Khan were really facilitated now, then this Baigou would probably continue to become the junction between the north and the south.

"All the flowers of the ages have a legacy", since he wrote this poem, can he, Hao Jing, do this?
When the wind and snow came, Hao Jing wiped away the tears from his eyes.

The soldiers of the Yuan army who escorted him were still watching, and he couldn't let them see his emotions.

So the team continued to move forward, passing through the cities of Dingxing, Suizhou, and Daxing, and finally arrived in Yanjing a few days later.

Along the way, Hao Jing observed carefully and found that the Yuan army had strong walls and clear fields, and the defensive arrangement was quite different from that south of Baigou.

Most of the south of Baigou belonged to the land guarded by the Han princes, while the land to the north was directly controlled by Kublai Khan.In addition, if it is said that the south of Baigou used to be the soil of the Song Dynasty, and it has been less than 150 years since the funeral, while the north has been away for 330 years. There is still a difference in people's sentiments.

After entering Yanjing, Kublai Khan did not summon Hao Jing immediately, but ordered Zhao Liangbi to come to see Hao Jing first.

Zhao Liangbi was a Jurchen, his ancestors' real surname was "Zhao Liangbi", and the pronunciation was wrongly called "Zhao Jia", so he took Zhao as his surname. By his generation, he was no different from the Han people, and passed the imperial examination of the Kingdom of Jin.

Before Li Xia became emperor, Zhao Liangbi also went to Chang'an and met Li Xia.

"Your Majesty is still worried that Li Xia will detain Bochang. Fortunately, you can return safely this time."

Hao Jing quickly waved his hands and said with a smile: "Brother Fu has also met Li Xia, so he should know that he is not such a virtuous person like Jia Sidao."

Zhao Liangbi twirled his beard and said, "That's right, Li Xia's demeanor is still fresh in my memory."

When he said these words, he looked at Hao Jing with a hint of probing.

Hao Jing asked back, "What does brother Fu mean by this? Are you worried that I will fail to surrender Li Xia?"

Although both parties knew that the generals and soldiers who escorted Hao Jing back had already been taken to investigate, Zhao Liangbi still said: "There is absolutely no such intention."

"I'm afraid His Majesty suspects me."

"Uncle Chang's words are serious. Your Majesty just said not long ago that if he can't trust us Han officials, he will simply abandon this Yanjing City. The reason why he still guards it is because he still has a firm heart to practice Han law, and he still trusts us. Veteran." Zhao Liangbi sighed, "We have been with His Majesty for decades."

"Yes." Hao Jing patted his knees and said, "I entered the shogunate late, and it has been 14 years."

The two sighed endlessly.

After a while, Zhao Liangbi asked again, "Since Li Xia has taken Baozhou, it seems that he is very determined to take Yanjing?"

"Not necessarily." Hao Jing said: "The boundary between Song and Liao is in Baigou, not Baozhou."

"If he is willing to negotiate a peace, why bother to mention such ridiculous conditions? His Majesty cannot agree."

Hao Jing said: "But our purpose is to drag him until he runs out of food and grass. We can talk to him slowly, even if we go back and forth on those small conditions."

"But what about Li Xia? What is his purpose?"

"He is not sure how the situation in the south will change, and he wants to wait and see." Hao Jing pondered, "Maybe he plans to rescue the Zhang family while preparing for the severe winter."

"Zhang Rou?" Zhao Liangbi pondered for a while, looked around, and when he saw Hao Jing was pouring tea, he said slowly: "The news of Baozhou's fall came, and it seems that His Majesty has ordered him to be killed. Today I heard that He was taken to the barracks."

Hao Jing shook his hands unconsciously, and the tea spilled all over his body.

"Dead...dead?"

"I don't know, maybe it's a sacrifice to the flag."

Hao Jing couldn't hide the flustered expression on his face, and said: "Brother Fu also knows that I have been greatly favored by Zhang Rou. No matter what, I think... can I ask for a favor for the Zhang family?"

Zhao Liangbi looked suspicious, and said: "Your Majesty has no reason not to kill them."

"What if Li Xia can retreat?"

"For Zhang Rou, it's impossible."

"No, Zhang Rou is just a bargaining chip. As I said just now, Li Xia is also hesitating."

Zhao Liangbi's eyes became more suspicious, and he asked, "Why are you hesitating?"

Hao Jing concealed his nervousness, calmed down, got up, took out a map, pointed and started talking.

"Brother Fu must have confidence in His Majesty's arrangement. As early as when Li Xia, Ulu Hunai, and Haidu met in the Western Regions for an alliance, His Majesty was aware of the threat, so he had already made arrangements for this to destroy Gaochang in the west. , sent envoys to Tubo, and the Southern Union to the Song Kingdom...Now the Song army has broken through Kuimen, posing an imminent threat to Li Xia. As far as I know, Li Xia was considering whether to retreat after receiving the news of Kuimen's fall, so he deliberately tested His Majesty .”

"Is it imminent?"

"That's right. Brother Fu doesn't know the topography of Sichuan and Shu, so let me explain in detail. Kuimen is the gateway to Sichuan. Once this place is broken, the gate of Sichuan and Shu will open wide. Li Xia is already in a dilemma..."

Zhao Liangbi watched Hao Jing's gestures of pointing Jiangshan, and gradually felt Hao Jing's confidence in Da Yuan...