The first-class concubine of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 232 Jinling
Jinling City is prosperous.

The news of the mission sent by the Song Dynasty quickly spread to the court of the Southern Tang Dynasty. After Li Yu heard the news, he was stunned for a moment, and then looked at the ministers nervously and asked: "Zhao Kuangyin sent the mission to come, it must be Blame the Lord of the country for not going to worship him, what do all the lovers think the Lord of the country should do?"

After Li Yu said, Zheng Wang Li Congshan came out and said: "Zhao Kuangyin's wolf ambition, if the king goes to Yan, he will return? If he wants to send someone to blame, we will fight with them in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Now our Southern Tang Dynasty is rich and strong. , are you still afraid of the Song court?"

For a long time, Li Congshan has always been a main fighter. In his opinion, the national power of the Southern Tang Dynasty is not weaker than that of the Song Dynasty. The only thing that is not as good as the Song Dynasty is that their ruler has no ambition. It is better to enrich the people and strengthen the army. Annexing the Central Plains is not a problem.

As soon as Li Congshan said this, there was a lot of discussion in the court, and Li Yu couldn't help but frowned, war is not a joke, it's okay to win, if you can't win, wouldn't you be a prisoner?

Li Yu doesn't want to be king and hegemony, he just wants to be a happy monarch in Nantang, but why is it so difficult to be a happy monarch?
Li Yu's face showed embarrassment, and there are many good players in the Zhuhe faction of His Royal Highness, especially the Hubu Shangshu Xigui.

At this time, Xigui immediately stood up and said: "My lord, the Song Dynasty is strong, and the Southern Han Dynasty has been destroyed in just half a year. I, the Southern Tang Dynasty, cannot meet its edge. Therefore, I feel that the envoy of the Great Song Dynasty will not be able to do so after he comes." , I’ll just wait for a good student to entertain you, and don’t cause any big trouble, and for the sake of my millions of people in the Southern Tang Dynasty, this battle must never be fought.”

When Xigui said this, other peacemakers stood up to express their support.

The two factions attacked each other, but Zhang Ji stood silently in the court hall, but although he was silent, his brows were deeply frowned.

Han Xizai handed him a poem before he died, and he got a booklet from that poem, which was filled with secret things done by some ministers in the court. If this booklet was submitted to the lord Li Yu, the whole South Half of Tang's officials are ashamed to be officials anymore, and even their lives are in danger.

For Zhang Ji, he now controls half of the officials in the Southern Tang Dynasty, but he did not hand over the booklet to Li Yu, nor did he use the booklet to control the officials in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

He knew very well that Han Xizai was forced to kill because of this thing. He Zhang Ji was not afraid of being forced to kill, but he felt that he hadn't reached the time to use the things in the booklet, and this booklet could never be handed over to Li Yu Yes, as soon as the brochure comes out, the Southern Tang Dynasty will be in chaos, and it will be out of control.

Because of that brochure, no matter what those people from the Lord Harmony faction said, he didn't pay attention to it, because as long as he wanted, he could immediately make these people from the Lord Harmony faction change their words.

However, the current Southern Tang Dynasty really cannot start a war with the Great Song Dynasty, so he did not threaten those peacemakers.

The reason why the Southern Tang could not go to war with the Song Dynasty was not because the Southern Tang Dynasty was weak, but because the refined salt of the Great Song Dynasty had penetrated into all aspects of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Now even their lord Li Yu can't eat without refined salt. , especially those officials and wealthy businessmen who only know how to enjoy themselves.

If the two countries go to war, the Song Dynasty's control over refined salt can lower the morale of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and even riots may occur.

This is extremely dangerous, so they can't start a war rashly until they have not developed the process of making refined salt in Nantang.

According to Zhang Ji's own calculation, as long as he is given another three months, he will be able to produce refined salt.

Now that the envoys of the Song Dynasty are coming, I don't know whether the matter of refined salt can be concealed.

There were endless debates in the court, but in the end Li Yu's cowardly thinking prevailed, and they decided to treat the envoys of the Song Dynasty well.

But on the morning of the next day after they made this decision, an official hurriedly reported that the Song Dynasty Mission had been attacked one after another after entering the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Tang gave an explanation.

As soon as this matter happened, the whole court was in chaos again.

"The court of the Song Dynasty is really hateful. When did the court of the Southern Tang Dynasty tamper with their missions, but now they come to ask us to give an explanation. They are clearly looking for trouble."

Li Congshan was furious. In his opinion, those envoys from the Great Song Dynasty wanted to provoke a war.

But Li Yu didn't seem to hear Li Congshan's words. He was just a little scared. The Song Mission was attacked one after another in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Is this okay?
What would he do if Da Song attacked Nan Tang in a fit of anger?
The courtiers were discussing a lot, but Li Yu didn't seem to hear it. At this moment, Zhang Ji, who had never spoken, finally stood up: "My lord, I'm afraid that this matter is caused by someone secretly."

Zhang Ji seldom opened his mouth, but when he opened his mouth at this moment, the whole court fell silent.

Li Yu has always been very fond of Zhang Ji. Hearing Zhang Ji's words, he quickly asked, "Zhang Aiqing, what do you mean by this?"

"My lord, do you still remember the situation when I went to the Great Song Dynasty in the Southern Tang Dynasty? We were also attacked along the way, but later found that it was just intentional people who wanted us to have a war between the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Great Song Dynasty. Now I'm afraid that someone wanted me to have a battle between Nantang and Song Dynasty, so I can't be fooled by Nantang."

Zhang Wei's words were in line with Li Yu's intentions. After hearing this, Li Yu nodded again and again: "Zhang Aiqing's words are reasonable, but now that the Song Dynasty missions are being attacked one after another, how should I deal with it in the Southern Tang Dynasty? If I don't give an explanation, I'm afraid of them Don’t want to let it go.”

Zhang Ji nodded: "The lord of the country is very worried, so if I want to avoid the disaster of war in the Southern Tang Dynasty, I must have a good attitude. I suggest that I immediately send people along the way to meet the Song Dynasty mission. Before the arrival of the Song Dynasty ambassador Liu Wei , it is not easy to conflict with it, that Liu Wei is a smart person, as long as he understands what happened to the mission, he will immediately understand that someone is deliberately embarrassing him."

Everyone in the Southern Tang Dynasty knew that Liu Wei didn't go with the Great Song Mission. After Zhang Ji said this, Li Yu and some ministers of the peace party followed suit, but Li Congshan's war party was furious.

Originally, the Great Song Mission was looking for trouble, and they happened to fight and killed the Great Song Mission in the Southern Tang Dynasty, which then provoked a war between the two countries. In this way, he has military power, can defend against the enemy outside, and even seize power inside.

But all of this was destroyed by Zhang Ji's few words.

After retiring from the court, Li Congshan was furious. At this moment, an official from the main combat faction suddenly stopped his way: "My lord, can I take a step to speak?"

The person who came was Zhou Zhou, the servant of the Ministry of War.

Li Congshan glanced at Zhou Zhou and said, "What do you want to tell me?"

Now Li Congshan was very angry, so his tone was very cold and impatient, but Zhou Zhou smiled lightly: "Of course it's about how to fight Da Song."

"Oh?" Li Congshan was a little surprised, but also joyful. After looking around, he said, "Follow me back to the mansion. There are many people outside, and my mansion is the safest."
-
Enter Li Congshan's residence.

Li Congshan is a member of the royal family of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He is handsome and extraordinary, and he is both civil and military. His family is rich, and his wife is no less than Li Yu.

After the two sat down in the study, Li Congshan looked at Zhou Zhou and said, "Let's talk!"

Zhou Zhou smiled: "My lord, the person who attacked the Song Dynasty mission was sent by my lord?"

Li Congshan frowned slightly, and then got a little angry: "What do you mean, why would this king do such a thing?"

Li Congshan was really angry. He felt that Zhou Zhou was suspicious of him, but Zhou Zhou smiled: "It's best not to be the prince. The subordinates feel that since the group of people were not sent by the prince, and the prince wants to go with him In the decisive battle of the Great Song Dynasty, it is better for us to secretly send people to assassinate those members of the Great Song Dynasty Mission, as a result, the conflict between the two countries will inevitably escalate, and this battle will be fought even if the king does not want to."

After Zhou Zhou finished speaking, he showed a sneer, but Li Congshan didn't express his position immediately, but hesitated: "Now that someone is provoking a war, why should this king bother?"

Zhou Zhou shook his head: "Your Majesty's words are wrong. Although there are people secretly attacking the Song Dynasty Mission, they are just harassment, and they haven't completely angered the Song Dynasty Mission. Now the king has sent someone to support the Song Dynasty Mission. , that group of people may not dare to take any further actions because of fear, so, my lord, do you think this battle can still be fought?"

"So, the king must send someone to take action?"

Zhou Zhou nodded: "You have to act. If you don't act, you can't anger the envoys of the Song Dynasty."

Li Congshan hesitated for a while, but this time he did not hesitate for too long: "This king knows what to do."

Li Congshan just said this to Zhou Zhou, but he didn't let Zhou Zhou participate in the next thing. Li Congshan is not a stupid person. He can't let other people participate in this kind of thing that undermines the stability of the two countries. He Neither agreed nor opposed.

Even if the Great Song Mission was attacked again in the future, no one would suspect him. Even Zhou Zhou could not be sure that the person who attacked the Great Song Mission was sent by Li Congshan.

Zhou Zhou is also a smart person, he left after Li Congshan said that sentence, he knew very well, and knew for sure that Li Congshan would follow his advice, because he knew that Li Congshan had ambitions.

An ambitious person who dares to do anything.

Just when Zhou Zhou left Li Congshan's residence, Zhang Ji had already quietly gone to a mansion in Jinling City by himself. The mansion was not very big, but it was in the safest place in Jinling City.

After Zhang Jie came in, with an anxious look on his face, he said to the people who came to meet him: "Our time is running out, how is the development of refined salt?"

"Returning to my lord, we have gradually figured out the process of making refined salt, but some steps have gone wrong. As long as your lord gives us a little more time, we will be able to develop refined salt, and it will be even better than that of Song Dynasty."

"how much time is required?"

"At least two months!"

(End of this chapter)