Zhang Yuan, who has white hair, looks extremely energetic, with a rosy face and a loud voice. However, Ren Duozhong, who is younger than him, looks really old. He is huddled in the chair. The weather

It has warmed up, and most of the people here have changed into jackets, but he is still wrapped in a thick fur robe.

Or for people like Zhang Yuan, power is his stimulant.

In the vast area controlled by the Western Army, he is the worthy number one person under Xiao Ding.

Even another leader who is also good at domestic political management cannot shake his position.

"Of course business must be done, it must be done."

Zhang Yuan expressed his approval with both hands of the envoy sent by Yelumin who called for the reopening of border trade and the proposal of peaceful coexistence.

"Prime Minister, now Yelumin wants to attack the Black Khanate in an all-out way. At this time, it is a good opportunity for us to contact the Black Khanate to attack them together. Why do we have to give up instead?" Xin Jian was quite dissatisfied: "The Liao thieves

With such ambition, do you know that he won’t turn back and fight against us after taking over Black Khan completely?”

"Heihan has collapsed!" Tuoba shook his head and said in awe: "We took advantage of this opportunity to retake Yanqi, Qiuci and other places, ensuring that the entire Xizhou returned to our hands, which is already very good. We are still right

Yelumin misjudged the strength of the Black Khanate and overestimated the strength of the Black Khanate. In the battle with Hengluosi, the backbone of the Black Khanate had been broken, and the next step was to be at the mercy of others.

What benefits can we gain by joining forces with the powerful Khanate?"

Xin Jian turned to look at Xiao Ding, who was sitting at the top: "Your Majesty, what do you say? Anyway, I think Yelumin is absolutely untrustworthy."

Xiao Ding said: "This time, I am more inclined to believe Yelumin."

"How to say?"

"Black Khan is dying, and Yelumin's ambition is obviously not just to capture Black Khan!" Xiao Ding said: "Now he can almost completely digest the Eastern Black Khan, but the situation in the Western Black Khanate on the other side is different.

It is much more complicated. If he wants to swallow it, he will inevitably have friction with countries such as Huazimo and Seerzhu. At this time, he does not want to have any more disputes with us, and even wants to develop friendly relations and do business with us.

, it would naturally be good to become his powerful logistical support to a certain extent."

Xin Jian laughed: "But why should we agree to him?"

Ren Duozhong, who was shrinking in his chair, laughed loudly: "Of course it is based on the strength in his hands. If he does not make good progress with the Western Black Khanate and cannot gain any practical benefits, and has to retreat, then we

Wouldn’t it be a big headache again? If you beat your child on a rainy day, you have nothing to do anyway, and then he will have to fight with us again. In my opinion, it is better to agree to him and let him go over there to do something.

How can Huazizimo and Seerzhu be so easy to bully? And now that he has defeated Heihan in one fell swoop, people have become more vigilant against him, so it will be even harder."

"But have you ever thought about it? If we really let him get things done over there, wouldn't we be in greater danger? At that time, he would be even more powerful!" Xin Jian still insisted on his opinion: "The enemy of the enemy.

, they are friends, we can unite with Huazizimo or Hanerzhu to deal with Yelumin together."

"The enemy of the enemy is not necessarily a friend!" Xiao Ding shook his head, "In the past few years, when our caravan went out, we also suffered from their losses."

Zhang Yuan continued: "And if Yelumin wants to continue to go west, it is easy to stretch out his claws, but it is also easy to get stuck in the quagmire. Why did we stop continuing to go west after taking Xizhou?

Because the strength could not keep up. Although Yelumin had the huge Liao Kingdom behind him, the only resources he could mobilize were the Northwest Recruitment Envoys under his command. The entire Liao Kingdom's focus was still on destroying the Song Kingdom.

Above the target, so he may not win. If he loses, it will be a great blessing for us."

"It would be best if he and the guy from the west both lose!" Tuoba Yangwei also laughed.

"So now it is a good choice for us to do business with them!" Ren Duozhong said: "Our life has been really difficult in the past two years. The trade routes to the west have been cut off, and the trade with the east has been blocked by Liu Quanyi, Qu Zhen and the others.

Block, and this guy Li Chun is even more insidious. Now that we have an opportunity to reopen the trade route to the west, we can't let it go."

"We do business with Yelumin and even help him expand in the west. How can we talk to Jiangning about this?" Xin Jian was a little confused.

"Why do you want to talk to Jiangning?" Tuoba snorted coldly: "Our King of Daxia, do we need to explain to them? We must survive first before we can talk about anything else. Now we are facing the conflict between Liao Kingdom Yelumin and

Yelvhuan's double pressure has held back hundreds of thousands of Liao troops, which is worthy of Chongwen's help to us over the years! As for what will happen in the future, we still have to see what happens as we go. We have our own interests, don't we?"

Xin Jian blinked and looked at Xiao Ding, but Xiao Ding turned his attention to his son Xiao Jing, who was standing beside him.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Jing was already eighteen years old.

In the past few years, starting from the age of fourteen, Xiao Jing began to work in the military, and then moved to the local level for experience. He just returned to the palace this year as the chief secretary, and he was engaged in confidential writing. In fact, he was his father's confidential secretary.

.

This allowed him to enter the core of the Western Army.

Seeing his father's eyes looking at him at this moment, he coughed lightly and said: "Father, everyone, in my opinion, business can certainly be done, but you still need to take the necessary precautions."

"Isn't this nonsense?" Xiao Ding said dissatisfiedly. "The uncles and uncles here don't want to hear you speak plainly. You can say whatever you think in your heart."

"Yes!" Xiao Jing took a step forward and said: "I was thinking, why do we have to choose between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty? Even if we have to choose, I don't think it is now. For them,

We are the bargaining chip that can change the strength comparison between the two parties. In this case, we can sit back and watch the tigers fight. When the critical moment comes, can't we just choose the stronger one?"

When Xiao Ding heard this, he sneered: "Childish!"

Xiao Jing blushed and was about to retort when Zhang Yuan smiled and said: "Little Prince, the one we want to choose is the weak one!"

"Why choose the weak one?"

"Because among the three parties, we are the weakest!" Zhang Yuan spread his hands and said: "We choose to favor Jiangning now because once the Liao Kingdom really destroys them, the next target will be us. On the contrary, if Jiangning destroys the Liao Kingdom

, how can they let us dominate a corner?"

"But if that's the case, why do we agree to do business with Yelumin?"

"Because he doesn't agree to Yelu Min, he is very likely to come back and start a war with us!" Zhang Yuandao: "We can handle him, and we can even handle Yelu Huan, but if we fight like this, we

What is left? So, as a weak party, what we have to do is to assess the situation. For us, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent allies! The most important thing is that everything we do must be

It is in our own interests to carefully survive in the cracks and secretly develop and strengthen ourselves. We have room for development, but these areas are too complicated and require us to spend more time to slowly integrate them.

"

Xiao Jing nodded thoughtfully.

Xiao Ding glanced at everyone present and said: "In this matter, we will do it according to what the Prime Minister said. Erlang once said that if a country wants to develop, both force and financial resources are indispensable. Open the way to

The trade route to the west is naturally good, but we must also pay attention to the connection with the Central Plains. Recently, it has been revealed that Li Chun on the Qinfeng Road is plotting the Shaanxi Road. I am afraid that the idea will also hit us.

For us, Zhang Cheng came down from the mountain and took over the Jingzhao Mansion, which is also a difficult force for us to reckon with."

Everyone nodded.

Speaking of the current situation around the Western Army, it is really very bad.

In addition to the Liao Kingdom, there is also the Jin Kingdom of Liu Quanyi, which is naturally an enemy.

Li Chun nominally obeyed Jiang Ning, but he could not hide his intention to become a local emperor. Zhang Cheng's sudden increase in power was not a good thing for the Western Army.

You know, Zhangcheng's father and tens of thousands of troops were lost in the hands of the Western Army.

"The Prime Minister should worry more about economic matters. Yangwei, I have another thing to entrust you with!"

"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions!"

"Take Jing'er and go to Jiangning with you!" Xiao Ding said: "Go and see what the situation is like in Jiangning. People say it's better to go and see it in person and you will feel more confident!"

"Going to Jiangning?" Xiao Jing was stunned. It was a short journey from Xingqing to Jiangning. It would only take half a year to go back and forth.

"Don't you want to go and see your second uncle?" Xiao Ding said with a smile: "You have never seen your little sister. She is exactly ten years old this year. As an elder brother, you should go there yourself."

"Yes!" Xiao Jing nodded.

"Show your prestige, I won't say much else. Go take a look and walk around. I believe that when you come back, you will be able to give everyone accurate information on how we should go next!" Xiao Ding showed his prestige to Tuoba.

road.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Tuoba said with a mighty bow.

"With the wealth, lives and future of millions of people, every step must be taken extremely carelessly. Any wrong decision on our part will ruin not only our own wealth, life, but also countless people under our command.

Everyone, it’s okay for everyone to ask for money or an official position. Even if some people do some very bad things, I just pretend that I don’t know about it. But on this matter, I hope that everyone must unite.

Together, we should adopt a unified attitude toward the outside world. Among the three major forces, we are the weakest to begin with. If there are internal differences again, we will really be at the mercy of mercenaries!"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty!" Everyone in the room stood up and said in unison.

"Xu Shen!" Xiao Ding turned to look at Xu Shen, Director of Jing'an: "The past things have been wiped out. From today on, if you are still involved with certain parties in private, don't blame me for turning your back on them.

We’ve been brothers for many years, don’t force me to do unspeakable things.”

Everyone was in awe.

Waving his hands, Xiao Ding turned around and walked inside.

People in the room looked at me and I looked at you. Some people's faces were not very pretty.

"Let's break up, let's break up! Do all your own things well!" Zhang Yuan said coldly: "Your Majesty has already spoken. If you still can't do it well, then don't blame it for being unpredicted.

.”

Zhang Yuan had wanted to kill him for a long time, but Xiao Ding was a person who was extremely nostalgic for old friendships. Moreover, in his opinion, these people had endured even before they crossed a certain red line.

Now Xiao Ding has finally made up his mind. If someone is ignorant and can't clean his hands quickly, then the knife will be stained red.

Returning to the backyard of the palace, I saw Gao Qi watering the vegetable field with her sleeves rolled up.

The lush green vegetables are growing very well, which is very pleasing to look at.

A civet cat was lying lazily on the field ridge basking in the sun. When it saw Xiao Ding approaching, it got up and walked over, rubbing against his legs.

Bending down to pick up the civet cat, Xiao Ding sat down on the field ridge and sighed.
To be continued...