The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Fu Bi was invited to Su's house overnight, and he only took one look at it, and Fu Bi confirmed Su Jin's conjecture that these fake tolerances were all members of the Dangxiang clan.

"Brother Fu, what do you think of this?" Su Jin asked.

Fu Bi paced back and forth in thought, and said in a hoarse voice: "The Dangxiang people are mainly Xixia people. In the Song Dynasty, only a small number of Dangxiang people live in the northwest, and very few Dangxiang people live in the capital. Not well defined."

Su Jindao: "Is there any special laws in the Song Dynasty for the party members, such as not being allowed to enter Beijing, such as hostility and discrimination?"

Fu Bi shook his head and said: "The emperor has always attached great importance to the policy of gentleness to non-Han people everywhere. Whether it is Uighur, Dangxiang, Khitan or the Yi people in the south, they are all treated equally, and there is no legal restriction against them; the common people may have some Discrimination does exist, but it's not serious."

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's strange. Since they are not hostile to them, why do they wear wigs to hide their identities? And judging from their equipment, it seems that they have premeditated."

Fu Bi said: "I think so too. I have prepared poison-quenching daggers and highly poisonous elixir, and have concealed their identities. These people must have ulterior motives. It's a pity that those three people will not open their mouths until they die, otherwise they will definitely be able to ask questions." The truth came out."

Su Jin shook his head and said: "If they don't open their mouths, it doesn't mean that we can't guess their conspiracy; before Brother Fu came, I thought about it carefully, and I figured it out, and said to listen to Brother Fu, do you think there is something wrong?" reason?"

Fu Bi said, "All ears."

Su Jin pointed to the dead body on the ground and the three party members who were tied like hairy crabs and said: "Their identities are actually not difficult to guess. I can almost conclude that they are Xixia people sent by the thief Li Yuanhao."

Fu Bi said without any surprise, "I think so too."

Su Jin continued: "They sneaked into the capital fully armed, and they must do something that is not good for us. I thought they wanted to be bad for our officials, but then I felt that their goal was not us, but something else. people."

Fu Bining said: "You mean, they are here...?"

Su Jindao: "Combining today's events, I think their goal is to target the Liao envoy."

Fu Bi was taken aback and said, "Aiming at the Liao envoy?"

Su Jin pointed to the blue sharp daggers in the spread cloth bag and said: "The preparations are so thorough, it is natural to put people to death. These daggers that see blood and seal their throats are not prepared for themselves. They must have come to assassinate Liao envoy Xiao Temo and his party."

Fu Bi frowned and said, "However, if you want to assassinate the Liao envoy, why do you pretend to be a tolerance? Besides, the Western bandits have a harmonious relationship with the Liao state, so what good will it do them to kill the Liao people? The motive doesn't seem to be great."

Su Jin smiled and said: "Pretending to be a public servant, it is indeed suspected of scaring the snake, which I can't understand; but the benefits of killing the Liao envoy to the western thieves are definitely huge, and the harmonious relationship between the two countries is just a superficial imagination. Since there is harmony, why didn't the Song Dynasty and the Western Thieves fight against the Liao people without sending troops to help the Western Thieves fight against the Song Dynasty? This shows that this kind of harmony has a limit. But if once the Liao envoy is assassinated, and it is within the territory of the Song Dynasty , have you thought about the repercussions it caused?"

Fu Bi was surprised and said: "The Liao envoy died in the capital of the Great Song Dynasty. The Liao Kingdom will definitely not give up, and will definitely provoke retaliation; the Liao people may think that it was my Great Song Dynasty who made the move. At that time, there will be a war between the two countries. A bloody battle."

Su Jin smiled and said: "That's right, this is the most vicious strategy of alienation. Once Song and Liao turn against each other, our Song Dynasty will be attacked from two directions, but the western thieves will be able to reap the benefits, and the Song Dynasty will not be able to compete with the two great powers." Confrontation, the disaster of national subjugation and genocide is inevitable; therefore, I say this is the most brilliant and vicious strategy of divisiveness."

Sweat dripped from Fu Bi's face, he took out his handkerchief to wipe the sweat and said, "Since that's the case, why didn't they directly assassinate Xiao Temo, but pretended to be a errand to play these low-level tricks."

Su Jin said: "It is reasonable to say that this move is a failure. If it succeeds, it will only increase the misunderstanding between us and the Liao envoy, but it is very easy to expose themselves. In fact, they are also falling into this matter and being caught We caught four accomplices; but my instinct tells me that this matter is not that simple, at least two premature conclusions can be drawn."

Fu Bi said: "I would like to hear the details!"

"One is: the guards in the post of the Liao envoy are very strict, and this group of people has no chance to attack; Xiao Temo looks careless on the outside, but in fact he is very careful. From the moment he entered the post, he took me to the Song post. It can be seen that the pawns and the servants inside are all expelled."

"It makes sense, Xiao Temo is indeed careful enough, and he is surrounded by the ten tiger guards of the Xiao family, which may have surprised these people, so it was a last resort to create a little confusion for us, so that the Liao envoy refused to negotiate with him. We negotiate terms, which is part of the way, and if there is confusion, they may have more opportunities in the dark."

Su Jin said: "That's right, although it's a guess, it cannot be ruled out that they thought so; the second point I think they are actually using this opportunity to assassinate the Liao envoy."

Fu Bi asked suspiciously, "You mean it's part of their plan that they pretend to be on official business so that the nearby restaurants don't serve Liao people's meals?"

Su Jin nodded and said: "Brother Fu, are you a little surprised why these party members didn't poison the Liao people's wine and vegetables? It stands to reason that the Liao people buy wine and vegetables and bring them back to the post to eat, which is the best chance for them to do it , it is easy for these people to poison the food and drink in restaurants; but the fact is, they do the opposite, threatening others and refusing to sell food to the Liao people, isn’t that a bit stupid?”

Fu Bi laughed and said: "You don't have to worry about this, I planned to take Xiao Temo and others out to eat in a restaurant at night, but unexpectedly Xiao Temo suddenly refused to go out with me and insisted on ordering me to stay outside I bought lettuce, raw meat, rice noodles and oil and asked the chef to make it myself; I thought that the taste was not suitable, so I ordered someone to go out and buy a few cooked dishes, and after serving them on the table, what do you do?"

Su Jin said: "What?"

"This Xiao Temo actually asked people to use silver needles to test whether there are poisonous substances in the dishes. It is really speechless; being so careful, it can be seen that the attempt of this group of party members to poison the dishes will not work at all."

Su Jin suddenly said: "So I understand, I am entangled in this matter; I think the party members have done enough spying, and they must know that Liao envoys have the habit of testing poison before meals. Once poisoned, they will really be exposed. Thinking about it, Xiao Temo was really hungry when he was eating and drinking in Neighborhood at noon, if people were extremely hungry, they wouldn’t be so careful.”

"That's natural, and besides, it's the restaurant that your Deputy Envoy Su took them to personally, so he feels more at ease; and after having a full lunch at noon, he is not too hungry at night, so naturally the string in his mind is tense again. "

Su Jin laughed and said: "They put their own lives above everything else; this way the whole thing can be easily explained; first, Xiao Temo had too many people and was heavily guarded, so there was no chance to attack; So these assassins of the Party clan took the next best thing, just as we made a big gamble with the Liao envoy to win them, and after the news spread, this group of people devised a more tortuous plan."

Fu Bi chuckled and said, "My dear brother, you can go and write scripts and dramas."

Su Jin ignored his teasing, and continued: "Just take it as it is, and the Liao envoy will have resistance because of my unfriendly behavior of Da Song, which will directly lead to the cancellation or postponement of the meeting. In fact, because of this matter, my plan was indeed delayed; taking a step back, even if an agreement can be reached, it will take more time to explain and communicate with each other, which created opportunities for them. The longer it is, the more opportunities they will find."

Fu Bi nodded and said, "It makes sense."

Su Jindao: "From this, I can boldly infer another plan. If Xiao Temo didn't have the cheek to beg me today, he only needs to go hungry for two more meals, and his defensive psychology will be relaxed. At this time, as long as someone pushes him Will the Liao people sweep away the hot pancakes passing through the gate of the posthouse? Will the extremely hungry Liao people use silver needles to detect whether there is poison in the pancakes worth a few cents each? What? If it were me, I would definitely not do that. When the hungry chest is on the back, who would have the time to take care of the cooking cakes bought from a passing vendor? I can even dress up as an imperial guard and borrow your Send it to your door directly in my name, although Xiao Temo hates you and me, he will never be willing to starve to death, and you can guess what happens after that."

Fu Bi changed his face and said: "Oh, according to what you said, it is really very likely to happen; even Xiao Temo is cautious, but his subordinates are not necessarily careful; even if one of the people below is poisoned to death, we will get rid of it." It has nothing to do with it, and Xiao Temo will definitely turn around and return to China."

Su Jin said: "These are all conjectures. Maybe this group of party members have higher IQs and think deeper than us. In short, we can't simply speculate on them."

Fu Bi panicked and said, "Didn't it mean that there were seven or eight people in this group? Four of them were arrested, but the rest are still in the city. What should we do?"

Su Jin said: "Don't worry, they didn't dare to fight when they were all together, but now that four of them have been arrested, they will disappear even more."

Fu Bi said, "Then what should we do now?"

Su Jin said: "First, pry open the mouths of these three people. No matter what, we must obtain the confessions of these three people. With this confession, it will be of great benefit to our negotiations with the Liao people. The second is to immediately notify the Liao envoy to strengthen precautions. Can't go wrong."

Fu Bi said: "It's not too late, let's go to the post to meet the Liao envoys immediately, tell them all about the matter, and take the three of them along, and interrogate them in front of them."

Su Jin smiled and said: "It should be so, tonight is another sleepless night."

Fu Bi took Su Jin's arm and said, "I ask Deputy Envoy Su to work hard. This matter may be related to the overall situation of the Song, Liao and Xia kingdoms."

Su Jin laughed, and followed Fu Bi out of the hall.