The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

() The Xixia officers and soldiers had no choice but to surrender unconditionally according to what Su Jin said. Seeing that His Royal Highness, who had sworn to die generously in five steps of blood splashing, dismounted and accepted the surrender, the soldiers didn't have half a heart.

But he didn't hide some courage, stole Leng Zi and slammed his horse into the wilderness under the official road and fled, but was brought back by the people led by the dynasty without any effort. Zang Ming chopped off his head to warn the Xixia soldiers what would happen if they wanted to escape.

Everyone stood and waited for the arrival of the brigade on the opposite side. They said it was a brigade, but in fact it was only a team of more than 1000 people, and most of them were infantry. Under the banner of the leader, an old man sat on a black horse. His face is dark and thin, his cheeks are sunken, and his face is full of wrinkles like chiseled and chiseled. The temples exposed under the iron helmet are also white with snow and frost. He looks overworked, but But the eyes are shining brightly, looking sharp and capable.

Di Qing hurriedly pulled Su Jin forward to greet him. Su Jin knew that this was the famous Fan Zhongyan. At this time, Fan Zhongyan had been promoted to the post of envoy to appease the edge of Yongxing Army Road. In fact, Yongxing Army Road was already in After the defeat of Haoshuichuan in October last year, it was divided into Huanqing and Fuyan. Fan Zhongyan originally knew Gyeongju, but after Yanzhou Pang Ji was transferred to Beijing, Fan Zhongyan was actually Huanqing and Fuyan. The top leaders of the military administration of the two routes.

"My subordinate, Su Jin, send my greetings to Mr. Fan." Su Jin bowed and bowed in front of Fan Zhongyan's horse. Su Jin respected Fan Zhongyan very much. After the famous line "worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joy later", Su Jin had a sense of admiration for Fan Zhongyan.

Fan Zhongyan got off his horse, stepped forward and bowed his hands in return, and said with a smile, "Master Su Jinsu? He has been famous for a long time. When I saw him today, he was indeed a handsome young man. I didn't believe the rumors at first, but now I completely believe it." gone."

Su Jin hurriedly said: "Don't dare, how dare, Su Jin is young, and he is not very mature in words and deeds. I hope the adults will support him a lot."

Fan Zhongyan laughed loudly and said: "What a clever mouth, he deserves to be the number one scholar in the undergraduate course. This is the strength of both internal and external cultivation."

Su Jin said with a smile: "Fan Gong's false praise, I'm ashamed to take it."

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Why don't you dare to do it? Just look at your first battle in the northwest, and you have already shocked the world. When it comes to this battle, the old man has to apologize to Mr. Su. It was originally agreed to lead the army within an hour. We rushed to help, but things have changed, and the rescue came late, it really shouldn't be."

Su Jin said with a smile: "Why did Mr. Fan make such a statement? There must be something that has to be delayed. I'm an official to save it." However, more than [-] soldiers and horses from the west seem to have an attempt to attack Murangzhai in the north of Gyeongju. Mulangzhai is a fortress in the north of Gyeongju. There are only [-] troops stationed. The army moved the tiger away from the mountain to attack Gyeongju, so I had to send [-] troops from Gyeongju to rescue; seeing the situation was critical, I had to take [-] soldiers and horses to reinforce Mulangzhai. More than ten thousand troops were indeed preparing to attack Mulang Village, and they retreated only when reinforcements arrived."

Su Jin said: "So that's the case, but my lord can only leave more than 3000 soldiers and horses to prevent the western thieves from attacking again. I personally led more than [-] soldiers and horses to rescue the officials."

Fan Zhongyan laughed loudly and said: "Exactly, I was afraid that you would not be able to stop me along the way. If something happened, I would be to blame. But I didn't expect you to defeat the enemy with fifteen hundred horses. Three thousand elite cavalry is simply unbelievable."

Su Jin smiled and said nothing, Di Qing was the first to tell the story of the battle, Di Qing never added any embellishments, but even so, Fan Zhongyan was stunned by the splendor and intensity of the whole morning's pan-chang battle.

After listening, Fan Zhongyan looked at Su Jin's eyes changed, especially Su Jin's trapping and killing two hundred enemy soldiers, using mad cows and mad mules to fight against the enemy's crazy horse formation, which can be called a classic, in such a short time The fact that Nei can think of a way to deal with this shows that this person has real materials.

Originally, Fan Zhongyan somewhat underestimated Su Jin, but after receiving the private letter written by Yan Shu, Fan Zhongyan even disapproved of Su Jin. He believed that the purpose of Su Jin's marriage to Yan's daughter must also be to seek profit. As for the title of No. It was Yan Shu who exerted influence in front of the emperor, but after the real battle, his view of Su Jin completely changed. Even if he personally commanded it, he might not be able to fight such a beautiful battle.

When he learned that the leader of the enemy army was Li Ningming, the son of Li Yuanhao, the leader of the Western Bandits, Fan Zhongyan laughed even louder, and said repeatedly: "Master Su is a general of Yuanfu. He has fought against the Western Bandits for three or four years. He is the biggest official captured, Prince Xixia, hahaha, when this matter is reported to Beijing, the entire court will be overjoyed, and Li Yuanhao will be furious in Xingqing Mansion."

Everyone also burst out laughing. At that moment, Fan Zhongyan ordered them to stay where they were and rest. All the soldiers were busy chasing and rushing, so they didn’t eat lunch. At this moment, they buried pots on the official road to cook, eat, drink and rest. At noon, Fan Zhongyan made an exception and allowed everyone to drink some rice wine , to celebrate this great victory.

At the dinner table, Fan Zhongyan raised his glass to congratulate Su Jin, and claimed that he would escort Li Ningming, who was captured in this battle, to Qunjing City as soon as possible to claim the victory for Su Jin.

Su Jin hurriedly said: "Xiaguan first came to the northwest, and he didn't even enter Weizhou City, and his buttocks have not yet settled down. I don't know how many affairs need to be taken care of in the future, but I didn't expect to be rewarded; If there is a deviation, if there is credit, please Fan Gong to ask the emperor to store it there first, and if there is any in the future, I can use the merit to pay off."

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Interesting, interesting, and taking precautions before they happen. This is the handiwork of the old fox. It was taught by your uncle? You know how to leave a way for yourself when you first enter the officialdom."

Su Jin said with a smile: "This place in the northwest is not easy to mix. I heard that even Fan Gong and Han Shuai almost stumbled, not to mention that they are mediocre."

Fan Zhongyan couldn't help laughing, and sighed: "It's not entirely true. The wonders of the world are sometimes unimaginable. Those who want to do things really don't get along well, and those who do things perfunctory get along well. Don't you think it's strange?"

Su Jin heheed twice, but he didn't want to point it out. Of course he understood what Fan Zhongyan meant. Xia Song and Pangji made their fortunes in the Northwest, and losing a battle won a lot of baskets. Furious, Su Jin also felt deeply sorry for Fan Zhongyan. Some people don't know how to get promoted, they actually know better than anyone else, but asking them to do that will kill them, because there is a hurdle they can't pass , that is your own conscience.

Taking advantage of Fan Zhongyan's joy, Su Jin quickly proposed to take the captured war horses as his own, and complained greatly: "Fan Gong, I lost nearly [-] soldiers in this battle, and almost all the livestock were gone. Before the mouth cliff, I left two hundred soldiers and most of the supplies piled up outside the mountain pass. These mules and horses drove to Yingzui cliff with empty carts, covered with linoleum to hide people's eyes. Arriving at the destination, now that all the animals are dead and the carts have been destroyed, how can I transport these supplies? I want to ask Mr. Fan to deliver the [-] horses he captured to the subordinate officials, but I don’t know what Mr. Fan will do.”

Fan Zhongyan looked at Su Jin and said with a smile: "Master Su, some people say that you like to get cheap, but I still don't believe it. It seems that Master Su is going to share the spoils with this old man."

Su Jin blushed and said, "That's the truth. Otherwise, the officials will bring their own personal guards to go to the post. How about waiting for the imperial court to send chariots and horses to pick up the supplies? Anyway, this matter is not the officials' responsibility." For errands, the subordinates are only obligatory to help."

Fan Zhongyan said: "You asked for [-] horses in one go. Do you know how much these [-] horses are worth? Let me tell you, my northwest army has more than [-] troops, and there are less than [-] cavalry with horses. They are pony southern horses, and these [-] war horses are good horses in the territory of the Western Thieves, and they will be used to expand the cavalry army after they are captured, but you are going to carry food and supplies, thanks for thinking about it.”

Su Jin rolled his eyes and said: "When I arrive in Weizhou, I can also incorporate war horses into the army. What's the contradiction?"

Fan Zhongyan said solemnly: "Lord Su, aren't your five hundred horsemen five hundred cavalry? To be honest, the emperor has treated you very well. The five hundred horse army will be given to you if you say so, you know Did the old man give you anything when he became the emperor?"

Su Jin said: "What?"

"Three bad horses, just two green mules!" Fan Zhongyan was quite aggrieved, and he didn't think much of it at first, but compared with Su Jin, he felt a little uneasy.

"Six hundred, I only want six hundred."

"No, I can give you five hundred soldiers to help you transport supplies, but you must return when you arrive at the location."

"five hundred!"

"No talk!"

"Four hundred!"

"No."

Su Jin stood up slowly and said: "If it's not like this, Mr. Fan will give Li Ningming to me, and I don't want any horses or anything."

Fan Zhongyan said: "What are you going to do with Li Ningming? Are you afraid that the old man will take your credit? Don't worry, the old man will report the truth to the court. This old man Li Ningming wants to interrogate to see if he can find out about the deployment and deployment of the Western Thief's army. plan, and then send someone to escort them to the capital."

Su Jin smiled and said: "Mr. Fan has misunderstood. I am not afraid that the Lord will take my credit. What is the credit? It is a lot of random things, and I have not seen any benefits from the emperor; I want to use Li Ningming to help me transport It's just supplies."

Fan Zhongyan scolded with a smile: "Nonsense, how can the prince of Xixia, who has no power to restrain a chicken, help you deliver supplies?"

Su Jin winked and said: "Since my lord doesn't give me some horses to pull the cart, I will exchange this Li Ningming with Xixia for war horses. A prince can exchange a thousand or eight hundred horses at least, Mr. Fan. "

Fan Zhongyan said with a sullen face: "Nonsense, such an important person, you actually want to exchange them for war horses."

Su Jin spread his hands and said: "The captives I captured will naturally be dealt with by me. Otherwise, I will escort him to the capital and ask the emperor to allocate a few hundred horses to me. The emperor will definitely agree and save time with Master Fan." This grinding of lips hurts harmony."

Fan Zhongyan was angry and funny, no wonder Yan Shu said in the letter: This son has a stubborn personality, you can tolerate it as much as possible, and don't go against him, lest he do shocking things and make it difficult for everyone to deal with.Now Fan Zhongyan has learned the lesson.

Fan Zhongyan suddenly burst out laughing, what kind of war horse did he fight with this kid, he originally won this battle, he just thought that the cavalry of the two groups of Yanyan and Huanqing were too weak, so he wanted to keep these [-] horses, in fact What's the difference if it's given to Su Jin and the entire northwest cavalry is [-] more?

It's only because the Xia people and the Liao people regard horses as forbidden items and never sell them to Song Dynasty, which caused the shortage of horses in Song Dynasty. I am deeply worried about this, so I feel that horses are very precious.

Thinking of this, Fan Zhongyan laughed and said: "Forget it, I will give you all [-] war horses. Mr. Su is a new official, and he has a really bad temper."

Su Jin smiled and said: "How dare you have any temper in front of Duke Fan, isn't this a discussion with you? People respect me a foot and I respect others. Fan Gong is open-minded, and the subordinates have to give Fan Gong To save face; I only need [-] war horses, and the remaining [-] will be regarded as a meeting gift for Duke Fan, and all the armor, materials and equipment captured in this battle will be given to Mr. Fan as a gift, and I will not want them in the future."

Fan Zhongyan laughed and said: "Thank you so much. In order to repay Mr. Su's generosity, the old man ordered someone to help you send the grain to Qinzhou. As for the grain supplies on the Yanyan Huanqing Road, the old man ordered Di Qing to go with you to pick it up. It also saves you to detour to Qingzhou, you just go east and go straight to Qinzhou."

Su Jin quickly expressed his thanks. It seems that the outside world has spread that Fan Zhongyan is straightforward and does not know how to be flexible. Now it seems that Fan Zhongyan knows how to be flexible. The rumors from the outside world are really unbelievable.