The prince is more stable

Chapter 582 Dependence on each other
Zhao Xiaoqian was a man of particularities. After stealing someone else's wife, he should be polite to her husband.

He knew that the Western Xia Kingdom had actually been unwilling to accept the situation since it submitted to the Song Dynasty.

Two years ago, Li Qianshun was busy purging the Queen Mother's party from the Xixia court and removing powerful officials from the court. In addition, the firearms of the Song Dynasty did give Li Qianshun enough shock, so Xixia became obedient in the past two years.

Now that Li Qianshun has put the court in order and completely grasped the emperor's power, other thoughts naturally arise in his mind.

How can a person who claims to be an emperor be willing to pay tribute to others every year?
Look at the successive officials of the Song Dynasty. When they sent annual tribute to the Liao Kingdom, who didn’t look aggrieved?
After two years of recuperation, the strength of Western Xia gradually recovered, and Li Qianshun was naturally unwilling to surrender.

It’s not because he lost his memory and forgot how powerful the Song army’s firearms were, but because the emperors of the Song, Liao and Xia kingdoms all knew very well that if they didn’t do something for their country, they would sooner or later be annexed by the other two countries.

Two years ago, Western Xia provoked a border war, and a year ago, the Liao Kingdom provoked a war. Zhao Xiaoqian also led the Dragon Guard Battalion to take the initiative to provoke a war with the Liao Kingdom.

These actions are all aimed at expanding one's own country's space environment and squeezing the space environment of other countries. If the opportunity is right, one must swallow the other party when he seizes the chance.

This has nothing to do with the quality of the weapons, but comes from the will of the emperor.

Emperors will never be willing to be vassals. Even if their weapons are inferior to others, they will not choose to lie dormant in order to struggle for survival.

Zhao Xiaoqian therefore expressed great sympathy for the Liao-Xia alliance, as if he were witnessing the conquests and alliances of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a scene that would be repeated again during the Song Dynasty. No wonder historians often say that history is a cycle.

We can understand it one way or another, but we still have to destroy what needs to be destroyed. We can't just sit there and watch the Liao-Xia alliance become a reality, right?

Li Jinzhen was forced to drink a lot of wine by Zhao Xiaoqian. His body began to sway during the meal. He looked like he was drunk and kept muttering to himself.

Zhao Xiaoqian knew very well that these people were very cunning, and he didn't know whether they were really drunk or pretending to be drunk. Especially for someone like Li Jinzhen who worked in diplomacy, it would be a bit hypocritical to say that this little bit of wine could really make him drunk.

Pretending to be drunk, Li Jinzhen leaned close to Zhao Xiaoqian's ear, chatting with him while carefully trying to find out what he was thinking.

In particular, the attitude of the Song Dynasty towards the Western Xia was a question that Li Jinzhen was particularly concerned about.

Regarding the Liao-Xia marriage alliance, Li Jinzhen was well aware that the Song Dynasty might be dissatisfied with the Western Xia, and the Song Dynasty's firearms were becoming more and more powerful. In this situation, Li Jinzhen was worried that the Song court would change its strategy, turn westward, destroy the Western Xia first, and then turn back to concentrate on dealing with the Liao Kingdom.

"Li Qianshun is a promising monarch." Zhao Xiaoqian made his final judgment on the King of Western Xia with a smile.

Li Jinzhen smiled uneasily.

When others praise your monarch for his abilities, it is of course a good thing and you should be happy or humble.

But when these words came out of Zhao Xiaoqian's mouth, they sounded weird.

The more capable a monarch of another country is, the more it shows that he is a disaster and should be eliminated as soon as possible.

So, is this what Zhao Xiaoqian meant?

Zhao Xiaoqian's praise for Li Qianshun actually came from the bottom of his heart.

A monarch who was sixteen or seventeen years old, who ascended the throne in a hurry, had to face the abuse of power by powerful ministers, the conflicts between the powerful and landlord classes and the emperor, eliminate the followers of the empress dowager's party, and also seize the military power, check and balance the various forces in the court, and so on.

In two years, Li Qianshun actually achieved all of this. Isn’t it amazing?

Seeing that Li Jinzhen's smile was forced, Zhao Xiaoqian patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't think too much. My words are purely literal, without any metaphors or hints."

Li Jinzhen breathed a sigh of relief and said with a quick smile, "Your Highness the Prince is kind and honest, and I admire you."

Zhao Xiaoqian's cheeks twitched. He said, "If you don't have anything nice to say to praise me, you might as well sing an unpleasant toast. In any case, don't praise me for being 'benevolent, righteous, and honest.' It makes people feel guilty and they always feel like you are secretly scolding me..."

Li Jinzhen hurriedly said, "The minister's words are literal, without any metaphor."

Seeing that Li Jinzhen was hesitant to speak, Zhao Xiaoqian naturally understood what he was trying to test, so he smiled and said, "Today I have captured the Liao princess, so the Liao-Xia marriage is naturally invalid."

"Wait until Li Qianshun gets the news and see what his attitude is."

"If he still insists on marrying a Liao princess and flirting with the Liao…" Zhao Xiaoqian looked at him with a smile, "He's courting death. Do you think I should accept him?"

"Adjusting our strategy isn't a difficult task. Compared to the Liao, it's much easier for the Song to conquer the Western Xia. We can bring them under our control within half a year. Then, we can turn around and attack the Liao. With fewer worries, the Song will be able to fight more easily..."

Zhao Xiaoqian spoke slower and slower, and involuntarily touched his chin, looking thoughtful.

Li Jinzhen's heart skipped a beat and he almost went crazy.

Did you really get inspired? What's with that look on your face? No, my king!

"Your Highness, Your Highness! Drink, quickly! Drink!" Li Jinzhen hurriedly toasted, trying to interrupt Zhao Xiaoqian's evil thoughts.

Zhao Xiaoqian absentmindedly sipped his wine. Li Jinzhen said, "When this minister returns to Western Xia, he will certainly persuade Your Majesty to abandon the Xia-Liao alliance and submit to the Song Dynasty from now on, paying tribute year after year, and never wavering."

Zhao Xiaoqian smacked his lips with a bit of regret and said, "I'll take your words at face value. I'm still looking forward to Li Qianshun's reaction..." "No reaction!" Li Jinzhen swore to the sky.

"You didn't react when your wife was robbed? That's impossible, right?"

"Women are like clothes, and brothers are like limbs. Moreover, your Majesty has never seen this dress, and we haven't held a wedding ceremony. She can't be considered his wife. Your Highness can take it away. It's not a pity."

Zhao Xiaoqian chuckled and patted him hard: "You are really worried about your master's life. You are really pitiful."

Li Jinzhen forced out a smile that was uglier than crying: "I've learned from getting beaten up. Before a fist hits your face, it's best to learn to squat down with your hands on your head..."

"Old Li, you are a man with a story. Come, drink this cup to the full."

…………

By nightfall, Li Jinzhen and other officials had already been overthrown by his generals.

Two imperial guards helped Zhao Xiaoqian back to the backyard of the government office.

Zhao Xiaoqian was a little drunk, but not too drunk, and was very conscious.

After returning to the backyard, the imperial guards helped him walk towards the north wing with ease. When passing by the east wing, Zhao Xiaoqian glanced inadvertently and found that the lights were still on in the wing.

So Zhao Xiaoqian paused, waved his hand and ordered the two imperial guards to retreat. He then walked to the door alone, listened to the movement inside, then stood in front of the door for a while, turned around and walked away.

Inside the room, Yelu Nanxian and the palace maid who did not deserve a name were lying on the same bed. However, neither of them was sleepy at the moment. The palace maid stared at the door nervously, while Yelu Nanxian flipped through a book with a meaningless look on his face.

The two girls couldn't have failed to hear the noise of Zhao Xiaoqian returning to the backyard and standing outside their door.

The palace maid was so scared that she wanted to cry. She curled up in her quilt, tightly holding a palace hairpin in her hand.

Yelu Nanxian was slowly flipping through a copy of the Tao Te Ching. It was obvious that she could speak Chinese, recognize Chinese characters, and had read many classics of the sages of the Central Plains since she was a child.

I heard Zhao Xiaoqian standing outside the door for a while, and finally left quietly.

The maid finally breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Abducted here by the Song army during the day, the young palace maid had never experienced such a terrifying scene. Thinking that she was now trapped in the enemy camp and might never return, the palace maid wanted to cry, miss home, and want to cry...

Yelu Nanxian was engrossed in his book, not even looking up. "Don't worry," he said. "If he really wants to do something to us, what good will this hairpin do you? This is the main camp of the Song army, with 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers. How can two weak women like us escape?"

The maid sobbed, "Your Highness, Princess, aren't you afraid?"

Yelu Nanxian rolled his eyes and said, "What's there to be afraid of? It's just a shell. If you can't control your own destiny, don't even think about controlling your own body."

"But I'm still very scared..." the palace maid cried.

Yelu Nanxian frowned slightly and said, "In terms of appearance, I am naturally more beautiful than you. If he wants to ruin us, he will definitely attack me first. If he is satisfied with me, he will probably not be interested in you anymore."

"...Men's tastes only become more and more discerning. They won't ruin a beautiful woman and then turn around and ruin an ugly one. Even if he still had the courage, he would only ruin me twice, and not do anything to you."

The palace maid was stunned. With her limited brain capacity, she couldn't tell whether Her Royal Highness the Princess was comforting her or hurting her.

In the enemy camp and the wing room, the two women had very different identities, but at this moment there was a desolate feeling of relying on each other, which made these two women of different classes unconsciously draw closer to each other and ignore the difference in their identities.

"Your Highness, you have been very calm since you were taken to the Song army camp. Are you really not afraid of death or being humiliated?" the palace maid asked curiously.

Yelu Nanxian said calmly, "Life is difficult, and the only thing that matters is death. No matter how powerful the Song army is, they can only take my life. When you think about it this way, what's so scary about it?"

The palace maid nodded as if she understood, and then she felt like crying again.

"Your Highness, tell me, will we never be able to return to Liao? If His Majesty knew that Your Highness was being held hostage by the Song army, would he send troops to rescue us?"

Yelu Nanxian said flatly, "Impossible. Your Majesty would not start a war just for a woman, especially when the enemy is the Song army, which is invincible."

The maid sobbed, "So, we really can't go back? Will we die of old age in Song?"

Yelu Nanxian said calmly, "Does it matter where you die? Do you think you can control your own fate in Liao? Haven't you been whipped enough by the palace eunuchs?"

His eyes finally moved away from the book, and Yelu Nanxian stared at the only candlestick in the room and sighed softly.

"I actually hope the Song army will kill me right away. I've been dominated and ordered around in this life. It feels like I'm living for others. It's so boring. I might as well give up this life and try my luck in the next one."

(End of this chapter)