The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The audience was over, Su Jin and Fu Bi left the palace, and they saw a row of honor guards waiting outside the palace gate, the leading guards knew Fu Bi, so they hurried over to see him.

Fu Bi agreed lightly, and ordered everyone to line up to follow, and he and Su Jin rode side by side to the official post near Xingguo Temple in the right second chamber.

Seeing that Fu Bi seemed a little unhappy, Su Jin asked, "Brother Fu has been in a bad mood since he came out of the palace. Did my younger brother say something wrong in front of the emperor?"

Fu Bi sighed: "My dear brother, what you said just now is too full, how can you guarantee those three points like the emperor? You must know that you are facing the Liao people who are eyeing tigers. Is it what you think? Whatever you want?"

Su Jin laughed and said: "So you are worried about this. What should I do? Brother Fu, don't worry, one person does one thing and one person is responsible. If what I said cannot be realized, I will send it to the emperor to behead myself. Don't mention your rich brother."

Fu Bi stared and said: "What are you talking about? Let alone the fact that you and I share the responsibility of honor and disgrace as the plenipotentiary negotiator, even if you can bear it alone, how can brother Yu be wise and protect himself? You see my brother What have you become?"

Su Jin hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "My little brother is not very good at talking, please forgive me if I offend you; but since my little brother dares to boast in front of the emperor, he will naturally respond to it; Lord Sansi is right, this time the job is not If you lose your head, you will be able to rise to the top. As for the useless act of losing money and buying gifts for a while, you can only save your head and mine. We will have a hard life in the future, so there is only one way, and that is me and the emperor. The three mentioned."

Fu Bi said happily: "It turns out that you already have a countermeasure, but it's hard for you to hide it, brother, so hurry up and listen."

Su Jin said: "It's not considered to be a countermeasure, it's just that I couldn't sleep last night. I took a good look at the future and basically figured out the bottom line of the Liao people, so I have some ideas in my heart."

Fu Bi said, "What is the bottom line of the Liao people?"

Su Jin didn't answer directly, but only asked: "What do you think the real purpose of the Liao Kingdom is this time, Brother Fu?"

Fu Bi thought for a while and said, "I think the Liao people are trying to take advantage of the internal and external troubles of the Great Song Dynasty to come here to blackmail, and if they don't get any benefits, they will use this as an excuse to attack me. Song has coveted it for a long time."

Su Jin nodded and said: "The expectations are good, but not completely; the blackmail is true, but it may not be so if it is a large-scale attack."

Fu Bi said, "How can you see that?"

Su Jin said: "The war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia has been going on for almost five years."

Fu Bi interjected, "More than four years."

Su Jin said: "Yes, if the Liao Kingdom wants to take this opportunity to annihilate the Song Dynasty, there will be opportunities in four years. According to the Lord Sansi, the first year of Baoyuan's war with the Western Bandits was the first year of floods and then the plague of migratory locusts. The output of the country's fields has been reduced by half, and there have been bandits in the country, and the people have been displaced; why didn't the Liao Kingdom come to blackmail that year, but chose this year?"

Fu Bi thought for a while and said, "Maybe it happened suddenly and there was no time to prepare."

Su Jin shook his head and said: "I don't think so. Since there was no preparation back then, it has been four years now, and preparations should be sufficient. Now there are only 15 Liao soldiers assembled on the border, and the tribal army is still the main force. Did the Liao people really think that , With these 15 soldiers and horses, can we go south to conquer our Great Song Dynasty? The total number of Xiangbing soldiers from all over the Great Song Dynasty plus the imperial guards guarding the capital is 130 million. Why do the Liao people think they can win? It is said that a lean camel is bigger than a horse, don't the Liao people understand this truth?"

Fu Bi hesitated and said: "It is said that all the people of the Liao Kingdom are soldiers, and the national strength is claimed to be 300 million troops. Maybe once the war starts, it will mobilize a large army for reinforcements."

Su Jin stretched out his hand and pointed at the bustling crowd in the market: "Brother Fu, fighting is not about the number of people, but about the number of elites and the strength of logistics. The Liao Kingdom is located in the north, and part of it is animal husbandry, part of farming and mulberry. All the people are fighting against him." What to eat and drink? Once the war enters a stalemate, what will he use to fill the stomachs of soldiers and horses? Don't tell me that the Liao Kingdom has sufficient reserves. I live in the south of the Song Dynasty, sitting in a vast and rich land, and I am so stretched. , I don’t believe that the Liao Kingdom has good weather and good harvests every year.”

Fu Bi nodded and said: "That's not true. The Liao Kingdom has not been peaceful in recent years. When it snowed heavily in the south last year, according to the border reports, the snow disaster in Liao was even worse. On the large pasture north of Shangjing Road, the cattle, horses, cattle and sheep were frozen. Hundreds of thousands of heads died, the herdsmen suffered great losses, and they gathered to make trouble, the Lord of Liao was furious, and it is said that many people were also killed."

Su Jin smiled and said: "You also know that every family has hard-to-recite scriptures, and his life is not easy; besides, I don't believe that the relationship between Liao Guo and Yuan Hao is so harmonious. If we are harmonious, why did the Liao people not send a single soldier to help Yuan Hao when we fought against the Western Bandits for several years? Until now, when the war in the Northwest has stabilized, we have just come out to rip you off, and the timing is too bad."

Fu Bi's eyes lit up, he nodded and said, "It makes sense, it makes sense, there must be grievances between the two countries, and it's not a joint attack on our Great Song Dynasty at all; yes, I remembered, last year I sorted out the East Road send The secret report from here once mentioned the rebellion of the Daier tribe of the Dangxiang clan in the southern part of the Liao Kingdom. Ignore him, the Lord of Liao sent 20 troops to the towns of Ningren and Koujing to attack Yuanhao."

Su Jin was overjoyed and said, "Sure enough, why didn't there be a fight?"

Fu Bi said: "It is said that Yuan Hao was subdued and sent envoys to negotiate a peace, and also brought up Princess Xingguo, who was married to Yuan Hao by the Lord of Liao, to speak out. That's why there was no fight."

Su Jin sighed: "It's a pity, it's a pity. If the two countries fight, my Song Dynasty will benefit from it."

Fu Bi clicked his tongue and said: "It's a pity that there was no fight, and now it's our turn to have a headache; brother, did you say that the Liao Kingdom didn't want to go to war with Song Dynasty at all?"

Su Jin waved his hand and said, "It's not that I don't want to, but that I don't have the ability."

Fu Bi said: "That's how it is. Brother Yu's detailed analysis makes sense, but Brother Yu is still a little worried. What if the Liao people really turn their backs and start fighting?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "The fight is just a small fight. You know that I, Da Song, and the Xi thief have been fighting for a few years. Who took advantage? You can't kill me, and I can't kill you. Because of the equal strength, there is an opportunity for peaceful coexistence; in the Chanzhou alliance back then, my Great Song Dynasty failed to conquer the Liao Kingdom, and the Liao Kingdom also failed to conquer my Great Song Dynasty, and it was meaningless to fight back and forth in the end , so a peace negotiation is inevitable."

Fu Bi raised his finger and said: "Jingpi, it really is the truth."

Su Jin smiled and said: "If my guess is correct, the peace agreement between Da Song and the western thief Yuan Hao will be stopped within a year because everyone is not strong enough to eat each other in one bite. , It would be a waste of energy to fight, but in the end, I naturally chose not to fight."

Fu Bi stared blankly at Su Jin's assertion that Song and Xia would surely talk about peace, and was dazed. In fact, he was beside the emperor, and he learned a lot of secrets, one of which was that the western thief Yuan Hao had indeed entrusted someone Send a letter to the Northwest Song army camp to discuss the truce and peace talks; but Zhao Zhen secretly summoned Du Yan, Lu Yijian and others, both of them thought the disgusting words were unbearable, so they didn't agree.

In fact, the emperor sighed afterwards: "There is no end for the two snakes to swallow each other. It is better to let each other protect each other." It is a pity that Lu Yijian and Du Yan unanimously opposed it.

Of course, it is absolutely impossible for Su Jin to know such a confidential matter, but he can actually assert that there will be a truce and a peace negotiation. This far-sighted vision alone is enough to make Fu Bi think highly of him.

If Fu Bi knew that Su Jin calculated the ending based on his vague memory and age, he would have fainted from fright on the spot; and the reason why Su Jin dared to boast in front of the emperor was naturally because what he was thinking hard last night was not a countermeasure , but glued the fragments of his memory together, and finally remembered that Renzong had no military affairs with the Liao Kingdom before he dared to speak out.

Of course, Su Jin didn't know the specific details, but Su Jin naturally knew the general direction, and the analysis just now was indeed over his head, and what he said hit the point; The reason why people live in peace with Song Dynasty is nothing more than a matter of strength. Talking about real friendship, brotherhood and other bullshit is just a tacit lie.