The imperial garden behind the Funing Palace.

Zhao Xu walked with Empress Dowager Xiang and admired the beautiful scenery of the Imperial Garden in May.

Butterflies are flying and bees are surrounding.

Mother and son walked side by side, talking about things in the palace.

They are just concubines who want to benefit their own families, or they are relatives of some family who are getting married recently and want something from the palace.

They were all trivial matters. Zhao Xu listened and only agreed.

He has little interest in these things and doesn't bother to pay attention to them.

As they talked, the Queen Mother began to talk about state affairs. These days, Zhao Xu deliberately avoided participating in state affairs and seemed to only read the books of sages.

Empress Dowager Xiang often came to Funing Palace to talk to Zhao Xu, study with Zhao Xu, and communicate with Zhao Xu about some state affairs.

"Sixth brother, Ali Gu of Tubo, sent an envoy to write a letter begging Xihe Zhongpu and others not to cross the border to recruit Tibetan people..."

"There were endless discussions in the court, and many ministers thought that Zhong Pu and others should be warned, and more importantly, the guardian Zhao Xi should be strictly ordered to restrain Zhong Pu and others from leaving the side..."

"What do Sixth Brother think?" As he said that, Queen Mother Xiang looked at Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu listened, smiled softly, and said: "Empress, I have heard about this matter and reported it to my uncle secretly..."

"It is said that Qingyi, the leader of Tubo in Hezhou and Huangzhou, was a ghost leader. He abused the people under his rule and forced them to have no livelihood. He knew that I was a virtuous government, so they came to vote one after another..."

"This is the victory of the saint's teaching of benevolence and righteousness!"

"That Qingyi, who is a ghost seal, does not use benevolence and justice, does not practice etiquette, and cannot calm the people. The people will naturally come to our court. Do they still have the face to come to Bianjing to complain?"

Empress Dowager Xiang was stunned: "Has Xiang Zonghui ever reported revenge to Xihe with Sixth Brother?"

Zhao Xu snorted: "Since I went to Xihe, my uncle often rushed to the capital on horseback. He would greet his son and minister, or talk to his son and minister about the customs and customs of Xihe. He only said: I am at the border and see the suffering of the people.

The soldiers and the people are facing many difficulties, but here are a few tips. I would like your Majesty to investigate in detail..."

"My son has learned a lot about things far away..."

In fact, Zhao Xu probably knows some of the details about Xihe Road.

Xiang Zonghui and Gao Gongji would send letters to him every three or five times by horse delivery or urgent horse delivery to report on the situation in the cotton fields, Xihe area and the horse buying farm.

In addition, the few ministers Li Xian left in Xihe will also report to him regularly.

Zhao Xi and other civil and military ministers in Xihe will also report certain matters to the court regularly according to the system.

Although these people may not tell Zhao Xu the real local truth to the court - deceiving the superiors and concealing the truth from the inferiors is the traditional style of the bureaucracy. Reporting good news but not bad news is a routine operation in the officialdom.

But your words and my words can still outline something.

In addition, Zhao Xu now has old border ministers like Li Xian and Gan Zhaoji as assistants, serving as consultants and staff to help Zhao Xu understand the situation in Xihe, Yanyan, Jingyuan and other places.

This allowed Zhao Xu to know things thousands of miles away even though he was in Bianjing.

Based on what Zhao Xu knows now, there should be a shortage of labor in Xihe.

Mainly due to the reclamation of cotton fields, the planting area is constantly expanding.

There are many people, even though they can’t keep up with this year’s cotton fields.

But when they saw Xiang Zong returning to their cotton fields and heard about the possible expected profits, they all started reclamation work.

There is not much else on the other side of Xihe River.

There is so much unclaimed wasteland!

Therefore, along with the civil and military ministers of Xihe and the local powerful Han people, they all began to invest in reclamation and construction.

Xihe's manpower shortage problem began to become apparent.

In particular, cheap labor has become scarce.

But can a living person still be choked to death by urinating?

The civil and military ministers on the other side of the Xihe River, and even the local powerful Han people, started the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, each showing their magical powers.

Although I don’t know, what exactly did they do?

But one obvious fact is that they started to import labor from outside like crazy.

Judging from the reports of Li Xian's old ministries, it seems that they initially recruited labor through pilgrims from Tibet, Dangxiang and Han teams.

However, they soon discovered that this recruitment speed was too slow and unsatisfactory.

So, they started to take the initiative.

As a result of these people taking the initiative, the Dangxiang, Qiang, and Tubo people around Xihe were attracted in large numbers to Xihe Road.

The Xihe Song Army may have carried out several armed escort operations - and may have even teamed up with Tibetan leaders like Wen Xixin and Wen Baxin who were dissatisfied with Ali Gu to do some operations that may not be convenient for the court to know.

A lot of people were 'taken away' from Qingyi Jie Guizhang.

This is probably what happened - even if there is a difference, it probably won't be much different.

So, will the Tibetan people and the Dangxiang people sit back and watch as Xihe sucks blood?

impossible!

Now that the Tubo people have come to Bianjing to file a complaint, it is probably their inner peace faction who is making a last-ditch attempt.

Once the answer from Bianjing is not what they want.

Zhao Xu felt that the war was likely to be brought forward.

Because this year's drought is still continuing and may even expand.

The drought is spreading from Huainan Road to the north, and drought is also occurring in western Beijing.

Under the influence of the global Little Ice Age climate, the Central Plains located within the precipitation line is experiencing drought.

What about Qingtang River, Huanglingxia and Hexi?

I'm afraid the disaster will only get worse.

And under drought, more and more people will be unable to survive.

In order to survive, more and more Tubo people, Dangxiang people, and Qiang people fled to the Song Dynasty.

It was very convenient for these people to flee to the Song Dynasty.

There is no Great Wall on the other side of Xihe River, and there is no concept of border there.

Especially the nomadic people live in pursuit of water and grass as the seasons change.

Especially those small tribes, they really come and go at will.

The Dangxiang side might be a little better and the management should be stricter.

The loose regime of Tubo in the Qing Tang Dynasty could not control the small tribes below.

When people couldn't survive, they fled to the Song Dynasty without any effort.

In the past, Xihe might have disliked these people.

The poor people from Hehuang came to Song Dynasty to beg for food!

roll!

Now...

I'm afraid it's too late to welcome you.

Where is this person begging for food?

He is clearly the boy of the God of Wealth.

So, war is imminent.

Moreover, this is a two-way war.

Zhao Xu could see the hidden eagerness of these guys from the secret reports from Xiang Zonghui and Gao Gongji, as well as the written reports from Zhao Xi, Wang Wenyu, Li Hao and others.

They do it on purpose.

They are provoking!

They are eager to fight!

This is Zhao Xu's experience in his previous life - whether ministers dare to fight or dare not fight can be seen from the words.

As for the Tubo people and Dangxiang people, even if they don't have these things.

Under the coercion of drought, they would also make the same choice of sending troops south.

In his previous life, the Song Dynasty had made so many concessions, and Sima Guang even ceded territory to pray for peace, but in the end war broke out.

What's more, nowadays, the Song Dynasty is very tough, and Xihe is even actively provoking and intensifying conflicts.

Running in both directions, Zhao Xu knew that the war would definitely break out in advance.

So a few days ago, he decided to arrange for brothers Zhong Jianzhong and Zhong Shizhong to go to Xihe to occupy a pit first and gain experience.

Does the Queen Mother know about these twists and turns?
To be continued...