lady, please calm down

At the end of the first month, Taoist Wu Gen and his fellow apprentice Tai Xu calculated and unanimously recommended the Yi Hai day in late spring in April as an auspicious day for the 'six planets to be on duty'.

It means that there is no fear in all directions, everything goes well, it is beneficial to the country and benefit the people.

In simple terms, April 12 is the best day for big bosses to get promoted.

The time was chosen very cleverly. Firstly, it was late spring and the climate was suitable. Secondly, there were still more than two months in between, which gave officials from distant border areas time to come and pay homage.

On the third day of February, Wudao Chong, the prime minister of Western Xia who had been stranded in Tokyo like Chai Ji, was invited to visit the prime minister's residence.

Cai Yuan got straight to the point, "On April 12, the new emperor ascended the throne, and the Xixia emperor and the prince were specially invited to come and watch the ceremony."

Even though Wudao Chong had been prepared, he still argued for Xixia Emperor Li Renxiao, saying, "Our emperor has been ill since childhood and his body is weak. He has traveled thousands of miles to come here and I'm afraid he can't bear the fatigue of the journey. Why not let the prince come to Beijing on behalf of our emperor?"

Naturally, he didn't want the emperor, who was responsible for the country, to come to Tokyo, but the reason he used a negotiating tone was because the situation was beyond his control.

In the third year of Xuanqing, Western Xia followed the Jin army with the whole country's strength and drove straight to the city of Dongjing. This was also a gamble. If they won, it would be like a snake swallowing an elephant, and the entire northwest area of ​​Qi would be included in the territory of Western Xia.

If they lose, Xixia, which has lost all its wealth, will become a fish on a sticky chopping board.

The natural outcome was that Xixia lost the battle for national destiny.

Now, the army, led by Fan Gongzhi as the chief commander and Qin Shengwu, Tong Qi and Kuang Siliang as deputy commanders, was stationed in Dingzhou, Huaizhou and Jingzhou in a triangular shape, surrounding the Western Xia capital Xingqingfu in the middle.

In name, it was to help maintain order in the Western Xia court, which was internally empty and had almost no soldiers. But in reality, it was a knife hanging over the head of the Western Xia court that could fall at any time.

It is true that Western Xia was internally empty.

The losses incurred in the Battle of Tokyo would take at least thirty years to recover.

However, when many countries marched north to Liaodong, Chen Chu forced Wudao Chong to gather 30,000 people to join the army.

At present, half of the 30,000 people remain in Liaodong, and the other half are stationed in the Jingdong camp.

There is not a single capable warrior left in Xixia.

It was precisely because of this that Cai Yuan was so confident. Hearing that Wo Dao Chong still wanted to bargain, Cai Yuan simply laughed and said, "I asked Prime Minister Wo to come here today to inform you, not to discuss. I have received news a few days ago that General Qin, the commander-in-chief of the central army of our Northwest Camp, has set off with the Xixia emperor, concubines, and royal heirs, and will arrive in Tokyo around the end of March."

"."

"Haha, the Xixia Emperor is much more magnanimous than Prime Minister Wu. According to General Qin's report, your emperor was particularly happy when he heard that the King of Chu had summoned him."

"."

Especially happy? Wudao Chong, who had not received any news yet, could imagine with his toes under what circumstances Li Renxiao agreed to the invitation of the King of Chu. It is up to you to decide whether he is happy or not!
How dare we not be happy!

In mid-February, in order to demonstrate the smooth transfer of power, Chen Chu and Jiarou frequently appeared in the public eye.

By this time, almost all countries in the world had determined the political direction of Qi.

Even Dali, Jiaozhi, Goryeo and Champa, which had never dealt with Qi before, sent envoys.

Dali was a vassal state of Zhou, and Jiaozhi also had close ties with Zhou. Their purpose of coming here was, firstly, to find out the attitude of the new dynasty towards other countries, and secondly, to see if they could take advantage of the existence of Zhou to gain some benefits.

Officials at all levels of the court welcomed the gathering of envoys from various countries in Tokyo. Ever since the chaotic times of the late Tang Dynasty and the coexistence of Zhou and Liao, the Central Plains dynasties had not experienced the grand occasion of "the palace gates of the nine heavens opened, and people from all nations dressed in formal attire to pay homage to the emperor" for two or three hundred years.

Of course, everyone knew that the fundamental reason for all the envoys to gather together was the strong fighting power demonstrated by the Qi army in pacifying Liao in three years.

But no matter whether the other party is "afraid of power" or "afraid of virtue", their appearance can ultimately strengthen the legitimacy of the new dynasty and the new monarch.

Afternoon of February 21st.

A continuous spring rain washes the streets clean.

The Privy Council Chamber is a century-old building. As spring comes and the weather turns cold, the room becomes even colder.

Chen Chu was young and strong, so it was no problem, but the old ministers present could not stand it. Before the meeting, Chen Chu could not help but order: "Xiao Yi, send a few hand warmers over to warm the hands of the adults."

The rest of the people didn't react much. Zhang Xingyan, the Minister of Honglu Temple, who was over 60 years old, quickly stood up and expressed his gratitude.

As we get older, our qi and blood flow poorly and we naturally become afraid of the cold.

Apart from Zhang Xingyan, the oldest one is Mr. Cai Yuan.

After Xiao Yi brought the hand warmer over, Chen Jingyan took it and casually placed it on the coffee table, saying with a smile: "It's almost March, but I don't feel cold. But Prime Minister Cai is old, so he needs to be careful about the late spring cold to avoid getting sick from the cold."

Those present today, in addition to Chen Jingyan, Chen Jingyan'an, Du Zhaoqing, are Cai Yuan and Zhang Xingyan.

Chen Jingyan's words sounded caring, but they also hinted that Cai Yuan was too old and unable to handle the job.

Cai Yuan took the hand warmer and held it in his palm, saying, "Cover up in spring and keep cool in autumn. Lord Chen is already over thirty, how come he still doesn't understand this principle? And don't compare yourself with that young man, lest you get rheumatism when you are old and suffer from it."

Well, Chen Jingyan implied that Cai Yuan was old; Cai Yuan turned around and said that Chen Jingyan was also old, but still acted like a young boy and was enjoying the pleasure of talking, which was childish!
Ever since the positions in the harem were agreed upon last month, these two men, who are almost a hundred years old in total, have been acting strangely towards each other.

Chen Chu spoke at the right time: "Master Zhang, Master Du, envoys from various countries have arrived in Beijing one after another. What is the situation of these countries now?"

Du Zhaoqing's Minister of Rites and Zhang Xingyan's Minister of the Ministry of Rites both had foreign affairs responsibilities, but with different focuses.

Zhang Xingyan said first: "Dali is a vassal of Zhou. I guess the prince scared the Duan royal family after sweeping Liaodong. This time he took the initiative to come to Beijing and wanted to pay tribute."

"Submit your loyalty? Isn't Dali a vassal of the Zhou Dynasty? If you submit to our dynasty again, wouldn't that mean one woman serving two husbands?"

Chen Chu's analogy made several people smile at the same time, but Du Zhaoqing explained, "The Zhou Kingdom is now weak and poses little threat to Dali. It is not uncommon for small countries to pay tribute to the two countries in order to protect themselves. I think the Duan royal family just wants to establish a good relationship in advance."

Chen Chu nodded and asked, "Who is the emperor of Dali now?"

"Ahem." Seeing that Chen Chu was not very clear about foreign affairs, Zhang Xingyan coughed and reminded him: "Dali is a vassal state. It can only be called a king, not an emperor. The one in power now is the sixteenth clan of the Duan family, named Yu, also known as He Yu."

"Duan Yu???"

"Uh"

Zhang Xingyan didn't understand why the King of Chu looked so surprised. He quickly recalled and confirmed that he remembered correctly before saying, "That's right." On the other side, Chen Jing'an, who was still nominally the Prime Minister of Anfeng, seemed to have already understood the situation of various countries. He specifically asked Zhang Xingyan, "Master Zhang, what is the situation in Jiaozhi now?"

Zhang Xingyan said: "The situation in Jiaozhi is the most complicated. The previous king, Li Gongyun, seized the throne of the Li family and sent envoys to the Zhou Kingdom to confer the title of king. However, the emperor at that time, now the Emperor of Anfeng, refused the Li family's request for the title on the grounds that the Li family had obtained the throne illegally. After the Dingwei Incident, Li Gongyun died of illness and his son Li Dezheng took over. Li Dezheng took advantage of the turmoil in the Zhou Kingdom and had no time to look south, and led his troops to invade the north for 200 miles, occupying more than ten prefectures and counties, and slaughtering more than 100,000 people."

Hearing this, Chen Chu's brows twitched slightly.

The other ministers, however, looked calm. In the minds of many people, the people of Jiaozhi were killed by Zhou people. Now that Qi and Zhou coexisted, if Jiaozhi continued to harass Zhou on the southern border, it would be beneficial to the new dynasty.

Chen Jingan said at the right time: "Master Zhang is in charge of receiving the Jiaozhi delegation. Have you found out what the other party's intention is in coming to the court?"

Zhang Xingyan bowed to Chen Jing'an and said, "The chief envoy of the Jiaozhi delegation this time is King Li Dezheng's third brother, Zhengbei Hou Li Deshan. He brought a letter from the credible state, asking the new king to confer him the title of King of Jiaozhi after he ascends the throne, and to join the new dynasty in attacking the Zhou Kingdom from the north and south."

This is the arrogance accumulated by the Central Plains dynasties over the past thousand years. Even though they are thousands of miles away from the Han court, when the Zhou Dynasty does not recognize the legitimacy of their regime, the small border countries still yearn to be enthroned by the Han court.

But just as Zhang Xingyan finished speaking, he heard Chen Chu, the leader, suddenly say, "Oh! Zhengbei Hou, you are so arrogant!"

Chen Chu's tone was beyond everyone's expectations. In everyone's opinion, even if Jiaozhi only talked verbally and did not really send troops to cooperate with the future Xin Dynasty's southern expedition, the mere fact that they requested the new monarch to enthrone them would be a great benefit to the Xin Dynasty.

But the King of Chu's performance at this time. Chen Jing'an and Chen Chu have known each other for many years. After thinking silently for a few breaths, he probably guessed his thoughts and couldn't help but say: "King of Chu, Jiaozhi has repeatedly invaded Guangdong and Guangxi. It's all because of the Zhou Kingdom's incompetence and has nothing to do with our dynasty. It's better to go with the flow and fulfill Li Dezheng's wish to be enthroned. In this way, our dynasty can get strong support from outside and establish the orthodoxy of China inside. It's a hundred benefits without any harm."

"I understand everything you said, sir."

Chen Chu responded very quickly, but immediately added: "Of course, since I started the uprising in Huaibei, I have been fighting for the righteous cause of the Han Dynasty. How can I now confer an imperial title on a person who slaughtered people on the border and invaded the land? If I confer an imperial title on him, will the revenge of more than 100,000 border residents in Guangdong and Guangxi be avenged? Will he continue to invade my 200-li Han land? Our dynasty and Zhou are brothers fighting! With Jiaozhi, it is a dispute between Han and Yi! In the former, we need to shed as little blood as possible; in the latter, blood debts must be repaid with blood!"

"Besides, how can a tiny country that fears power but not virtue be considered a strong ally? When our dynasty is fighting with Zhou, how can we allow foreign races to interfere? Our dynasty was able to annihilate the 3,000-li Jin Kingdom at a small cost. Why did the Jin Kingdom fall so quickly? Mr. Yanagawa will not forget it so quickly, right?"

Chen Chu added a few more words at the end.

This is a personal experience, saying that the internal strife between Wanyan Tan and Wanyan Liang caused the Jin Kingdom to be at a loss and unable to form a joint force, which gave the Qi Kingdom an opportunity to take advantage.

Chen Jing'an had a lot of reasons to appease and win over Jiaozhi, but Chen Chu seemed to say this in a decisive and stern manner just to stop them from trying to persuade him.

Chen Jingyan thought his son-in-law was acting out of loyalty and was worried that his second brother would get into a fight with Chen Chu, so he quickly said, "This matter can be discussed later. Anyway, it will take more than a month for the King of Chu to ascend the throne."

After that, he turned to look at Zhang Xingyan and changed the subject, "What's the situation of the other countries?"

Zhang Xingyan carefully glanced at the King of Chu and lowered his voice, "The chief envoy of the Goryeo delegation is Prime Minister Jin Bushi. He...he is here to call for punishment."

Zhang Xingyan didn't want to use the term "raise an army to hold the envoy accountable", but when he recalled the attitude of the Goryeo envoy, this term was indeed appropriate.

But when everyone heard this, they were stunned for a moment.

In the end, Chen Jingyan laughed loudly and said in a teasing tone: "Are you going to raise an army to investigate?"

“Exactly.”

"What's going on?"

Cai Yuan asked, Zhang Xingyan looked at the King of Chu carefully again, and then said: "The Goryeo envoy said that our general Yang Zhen, the governor of Andong, occupied the three cities of Laiyuan, Baozhou and Xuanzhou in Goryeo without reason, and plundered tens of thousands of Goryeo people. Andong governor Ximen Gong indulged Yang Zhen and ignored the Goryeo letter. How can this be tolerated?"

Zhang Xingyan paused for a moment, a trace of embarrassment appeared on his face, and then he continued: "Kim Bu-shik also threatened that our dynasty would return the city and the people within 30 days, abolish the Andong Tuntian Humin Zhizhisi, and send Ximen Zhizhi and Governor Yang to Goryeo for questioning. Otherwise, he would send troops to attack Liaodong and capture Ximen Zhizhi and Governor Yang."

"Pfft~"

Du Zhaoqing, who was drinking tea, spat it out.

Even though Zhang Xingyan was just retelling the story, his face turned red with embarrassment. He also omitted many more shocking words, such as the other party's shouting "Horses trample on the Central Plains" and other words that were even more embarrassing to hear.

Chen Chu's accusation against Jin Fushi was not too surprising. When Ximen Gong left Liaodong last year, he said that the biggest problem in the development of Liaodong was population, and he also asked Chen Chu for a way to "get away with it".

Now it seems that this third brother Ximen has really embarked on the path of "plundering the population".

What surprised him was that the Goryeo envoy dared to threaten him. Could it be that the arrogant nature of the peninsula has existed since ancient times?
Do they really have no understanding of the current world situation?

Cai Yuan, the prime minister, thought for a moment and said, "No, Laiyuan, Baozhou, and Xuanzhou are all on the north bank of the Yalu River. They were originally the territory of the Jin Kingdom. When did they become the territory of Goryeo?"

After Cai Yuan's reminder, Chen Jingyan, who had followed Chen Chu into Liaodong, also remembered and said hurriedly: "These three cities are indeed the original territory of the Jin Kingdom. In the third year of Xuanqing, when Wanyan Liang confronted our army on the banks of the Daling River, Goryeo took advantage of the Jin Kingdom's emptiness and sent troops to occupy these three cities! Governor Yang did not occupy them by force, he clearly recovered them!"

At the beginning, Chen Jingyan spent a lot of time looking up information about Liaodong and calculating maps of Liaodong because he was the chief historian of Tiance Mansion. So it was not surprising that he knew the background of these three cities.

But what surprised him was that his old brother, who was in his fifties, actually knew that these three cities were the former territories of the Jin Kingdom!
You should know that Prime Minister Cai Yuan's duties were only within the country and did not include trivial foreign affairs.

There are thousands of cities in the world, and the three cities of the Jin Kingdom are all small cities with a population of several thousand. Cai Yuan was able to remember the ownership of these cities at the first time. I wonder how much time he spent reading maps on a daily basis!
From this we can see that Cai Yuan is very ambitious, like an old horse in the stable with great ambitions!
Through this little incident, Chen Jingyan couldn't help but look at Cai Yuan with a higher opinion. Although my elder brother always competes with me and is very annoying, I have to admit that he is indeed talented!

Over there, Chen Jingan, who was a little exhausted because of the disagreement with Chen Chu just now, could not help but angrily said after hearing the whole story: "The envoy from the Goryeo Kingdom is ignorant! Could it be that the Central Plains has been weak for three hundred years, so they have forgotten the majesty of the Celestial Empire!"

Chen Chu also said, "Xiao Yi, prepare paper and ink, and write a letter to Ximen Zhizhi and Governor Yang. I want to ask them what's going on! I left tens of thousands of troops in Liaodong for them, but they are just sitting there doing nothing! They actually let them come to Tokyo and point their fingers at me and scold me! I want to ask them, if they can help me vent my anger, then continue to do it. If not, then come back and be with the children!"

Chen Jing'an immediately replied, "We can send Shi Dalang to lead the navy to the coast of Goryeo!"

"The Korean envoy should also be killed!"

Just now, several people who had advised the King of Chu to treat small countries such as Jiaozhi with courtesy started to make a fuss.

In foreign affairs, face is more important than anything else.

Jiaozhi came politely to ask for a title, and the ministers naturally wanted to show the etiquette of a great country and win people over with virtue.

But Goryeo is so arrogant that it's above us. How can we tolerate this?

On the other hand, Chen Chu felt sorry for the border residents of Zhou State and kept saying that he wanted to avenge the border residents of his own tribe.

However, they turned a blind eye to Yang Dalang's behavior of plundering the population to enrich Liaodong. What a blatant double standard.

However, not only Cai Yuan, who came from a clerk family, thought it was natural, but also the brothers Chen Jingyan and Chen Jing'an, who were well-read in the books of sages, thought it was no problem.

You harass my people, that's killing them; I want a few of you, that's educating them! (End of this chapter)