The golden bell rang, the long whip was clean, and the originally dilapidated palace was renovated, and the façade of the Great Song Dynasty was forcibly decorated with ornaments, in a vain attempt to restore some of the prosperity of the past, but the imperial court that has been in decline, under this kind of decoration, can not play a little spirit, but it makes people look like an old man who has returned to the light, as if he can fall down at any time.

Accompanied by a group of ministers, Zhao Gou walked to the main hall, ascended to the court and sat down, Kuang Xun shouted in a sharp voice: "Go to the court!" Zhuqing has a morning music, and no retreat! ”

Today, all the ministers cheered up, and after hearing Kuang Xun's call, Li Gang, the prime minister who was also the attendant of the Ministry of Rites, walked out, bowed, and said, "The old minister has a book." ”

Zhao Gou smiled slightly, the joy flooded in his heart, and he almost couldn't suppress it, so he said: "Old Aiqing, why should there be a play?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Li Shitong, the ninth prince of the Western Xia Kingdom, has entered the court to pay tribute, and is now waiting for the decree outside the noon gate."

Zhao Gou nodded slightly, and said, "Let's announce that Li Shitong will go to the palace." ”

A series of retellings followed, and a moment later, a little eunuch sang in His Highness: "The envoy of the Western Xia Kingdom has entered the meeting!" With the words, a man wearing the clothes of the Great Liao King, bald without a hat, and three money awl braids on his head (that is, a piece of hair the size of money below, only the size of a thumb on the top, braided) were all standing, with two fist-sized gold rings hanging on his ears, and he was born rough, so he strode in like that, and the big thorn stabbed at Zhao Gou's arch fist, bowed slightly, and said: "The ninth prince of Western Xia has seen the emperor of the Great Song Kingdom. ”

All the officials present frowned, and Zhao Gou also looked at Li Gang, according to the rules, every envoy who entered the court had to perform a salute before he could meet him, how could he come to the court like this.

Li Gang was also very angry, so he said in a deep voice: "Envoy of Western Xia, you have performed a ceremony, how can you be like this?" ”

Li Shitong laughed and said: "Lord Li, His Royal Highness was quite serious when he learned etiquette, but when it came to the last dynasty, he suddenly remembered that I am the state envoy, if it is according to your etiquette, it will not be the identity of our country, I remember that your Great Song Dynasty has always respected loyalty and filial piety, in order to follow the customs of the country, indicating that I am loyal and filial, so I still use the etiquette of my country to meet me." ”

"Strong words!" Li Gang reprimanded: "My Great Song Dynasty is the upper state of the Heavenly Dynasty, since you come to pay tribute, you must have the consciousness of a messenger, how can you be so rude!" ”

Li Shitong showed a playful smile on his face, and said with a slight sarcasm: "What; Is it the Celestial Empire? ”

Zhao Gou didn't hear it right, so he said: "Okay, since the envoy of the Western Xia State is loyal and filial piety, and wears his own national uniform, then so be it." He was only afraid that Li Shitong would say about the second emperor's abduction, so he hurriedly intercepted the conversation.

Wang Boyan knew Zhao Gou's thoughts, so he interjected: "Then the envoy of Xixia is coming, don't you want to pay tribute to Your Majesty, just let someone send your tribute." ”

Li Shitong did not answer Wang Boyan's words, but said: "The Great Song Dynasty, our Western Xia sent a lot of manpower to get the Heavenly Master's Eight Treasures Heavenly Idiot Furnace in Helan Mountain, we thought, no one in my dynasty will bow this, so it is better to give it to you Great Song Dynasty, it just so happens that you also like it." ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone present changed color, Zhao Gou's face was gloomy as water, and his hand grabbed the handle of the dragon chair and clenched it violently.

Li Shitong then said: "But this thing must be a treasure, we Xixia have paid a lot of manpower and material resources for it, thinking that the Son of Heaven of the Great Song Dynasty is the kingdom of the Heavenly Empire, we can't let our Western Xia waste our efforts, we should give me some rewards for the Western Xia, we don't want the Great Song Dynasty to worry about how to repay our country, so we will prepare first." As he spoke, Li Shitong took out a sheepskin map from his arms, which was no more than the size of a palm, he grabbed the edge with both hands and shook it away, and said: "This is the map of the thirteen states that the Great Song Dynasty unreasonably took away from our Western Xia, so please ask the Great Song Dynasty to return these thirteen states to us to comfort our hard work of paying tribute." ”

"Bold brute!" Wang Yuan couldn't bear it anymore at first, so he jumped out, pointed at Li Shitong and shouted, "You are so bold, you dare to speak to the Son of Heaven like this!" ”

Li Shitong saw it, just stood there, looked at Zhao Gou, and said: "My 300,000 warriors in Western Xia were already ready to recapture the thirteen states, but my father thought that this would be in the Song Dynasty and should hope to get our friendship, so he ordered me to come to meet the Great Song Emperor, whether it can be returned, and ask the Great Song Emperor to give a reply, don't let our Western Xia warriors wait in vain." ”

This was already a naked threat, Zhao Gou took a deep breath and asked Kuang about his anger: "Bring the map of the envoy of Western Xia." ”

"No!" Kuang Xun answered, walked down and took the map from Li Shitong's hand, and held it in front of Zhao Gou.

Zhao Gou took a closer look, this so-called map of thirteen states, refers to his father Zhao Ji appointed Tong Guan as the commander of the Western Army, in the case of the great generals such as Seed Master Dao and Yao Gu, the Western Xia retreated again and again, and the thirteen cities taken away by the Great Song Dynasty were all added up, there should be thirty-one cities, but when the Jin soldiers entered the Kou and the Western Army transferred King Qin, the Western Xia had already taken the opportunity to send troops and recaptured 18 cities, so there were only 13 cities left.

Zhao Gou was originally not interested in these deserted cities in the west, and when he learned that Li Shitong paid tribute, he planned to give him back some of them, with the heart of Anxi Xia, but Li Shitong's arrogance completely angered him, so he pointed to the map with his finger and said: "Nine princes, here are all my Great Song Dynasty soldiers, blood and life, if I am with you like this, won't it chill the hearts of my Great Song Dynasty soldiers?" ”

Li Shitong said: "Then how should the official family appease our Western Xia warriors?" ”

Zhao Gouhuo hit upward, this Li Shitong and Ben didn't give him any face, and said to him sentence by sentence, this will he really have an impulse, so he grabbed the map and smashed it directly into Li Shitong's face, but the boundless anger in his eyes glanced at the map, when the north was blank, it was immediately like a cold ice falling flame, and it was extinguished at once, and now the Jin State has issued a proclamation, the Great Song Dynasty abolished the Zhang Zongchang Chu State established by the Jin State for no reason, and Zhao Gou restored the Great Song Dynasty that had been destroyed by Jin, and offended the Shangguo, and was going south again to destroy the Song State, The strong appearance of the golden iron cavalry made him afraid, and he really didn't dare to think about what the golden soldiers would look like when they went south, if they offended the Western Xia at this time, they would lead the Western Xia to send troops and drag the Western Army, but I was afraid that his newly erected court would die.

Thinking of this, Zhao Gou tried his best to say in a calm voice: "That's it, Ninth Prince, but you go back to the pavilion first and wait, and then respond after I discuss." ”

Li Shitong snorted, casually returned the salute, and then strode away.

As soon as Li Shitong left, above the court, it was like a fried pot, and there were many discussions, everyone scolded Li Shitong for being arrogant, and Li Gang even went out and said: "Your Majesty, the Hu people have always been afraid of power and not virtue, if we cede the land of the thirteen states to them like this, they will only be insatiable and invade me again, so please ask Your Majesty to expel Li Shitong, judge his delusions with words, and reprimand his evil intentions!" ”

Zhao Gou smiled bitterly in his heart, and said secretly: "Old Xiangguo, I also want to be so tough, but how to do it." ”

Wang Boyan said at this time: "The prime minister's words are wrong, now the most important enemy of my Great Song Dynasty is the northern Jurchens, this will offend the party again It is really unwise, according to my opinion, the land of the thirteen states is desolate and bitter cold, it is better to return it to them, in order to tie the heart of Xixia, if they can feel my holy virtue because of this, they will fight against the Jurchens with me, wouldn't it be very good." ”

Ma Shen snorted coldly and said: "The Hu people are shameless, if you can be content, how can you surround me in the Great Song Dynasty and kidnap me ......." Before he could finish his next words, Wang Yuan on the side stretched out his hand and covered his mouth, this Ma Shen spoke at will regardless of everything, if he called out the words of 'kidnapping the second emperor', then Zhao Gou would be completely faceless.

Although he was stopped by Wang Yuan, everyone already understood what Ma Shen meant, Zhao Gou's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and his two eyes looked at Ma Shen viciously, so he couldn't wait to grab Ma Shen and stuff it in his mouth and chew it a few bites to relieve his hatred.

Above the court, he was shocked by Ma Shen's words and didn't speak anymore, the ministers had all kinds of thoughts, each thinking uncertainly, at this time, Zong Ze, who stayed in Tokyo, flashed out and said: "Back to Your Majesty, Weichen feels that if it is like Xiangguo, it is too rude to directly refuse, if it is like Lord Wang, it will indeed hurt the hearts of the soldiers, now is the time to use the soldiers, but it is not good to make the soldiers cold, it is better to gamble with them, and fight in the big school field, it will win two out of three games, and Xixia won, Let them hand over the Eight Treasures Heavenly Idiot Furnace, so that they will have no excuse to raise troops, and if we are defeated, we will give them the thirteen states at once, and the people below will not be able to say anything. ”

As soon as Wang Duo's voice fell, everyone present, whether it was the main battle or the main peace, was all in the eyes, and after thinking about it repeatedly, they all felt that this was still a good idea.

Zong Ze then said: "Lao Chen's subordinates, there are a number of newly recruited generals, and when the time comes, send them to battle, and they should be victorious." "Zong Ze is also against the return of the Thirteen Prefectures, but he is more rounded than Li Gang, so he came up with such an idea, and his men have thrown countless warriors in recent times, so he has the confidence to win.

Zhao Gou hesitated, and said in his heart: "If you use brave generals, I have Gao Chonghan here and Li Jinyi, all of whom are brave generals, which can be used, but Zong Ze is bent on using his own people, does he want to take advantage of this great victory to improve his reputation?" ”

Zhao Gou hesitated, and when he didn't know how to speak, Wang Duo, the new commander of the Imperial City Soldiers and Horses, suddenly stood up and said: "Use a cattle slaughtering knife to kill chickens, why use the warriors under the Sect Elder Yuanrong for this trivial matter, I have brave generals in the Imperial City Division, and I will send it out to say that it is His Majesty's pro-army, it is better to listen to it, it is better to hand it over to our Imperial City Division." ”

Zhao Gou Dayue, without waiting for Zong Ze to speak, said, "Okay, I'll hand it over to Wang Qing." Then he ordered Geng Nanzhong, the director of the Ministry of Rites, to go to the post house and inform Li Shitong, and Zhao Gou was not in the mood to discuss anything else, so he retreated directly and dispersed.

Geng Nanzhong is Zhao Heng's cronies, and when he arrived in Zhao Gouchao, he was degraded again and again because of the misunderstanding of the lord and the matter, and no one treated him, so he gave him this errand that would obviously anger Li Shitong, Geng Nanzhong had no choice but to sigh and go, and after arriving at the pavilion, he explained the situation, and saw that Li Shitong was going to eat people, so he hurriedly slipped away with his tail between his legs.

After Li Shitong watched Geng Nanzhong leave, he slapped his palm on the table angrily and scolded: "This barbarian of the Song Dynasty is so rude, they are already half dead, and they dare to play with us like this and give birth to so many things?" ”

Li Shitong's cronies and advisers Hua Chonggui is a native of Yan'an Mansion, because he has no will, so he went out of the customs to vote for the Western Xia, and won the trust of Li Shitong, this time he came to the Great Song Dynasty to talk about the return of the land, which is related to whether Li Shitong is likely to take over as the prince of Western Xia. ”

Li Shidao: "How did they not say it first, just talk about how we can get back the lost land of the thirteen states, if it takes so much effort, but we can't get back a foot and an inch, then after we go back, we will be laughed to death." ”

Li Shitong's entourage general Wu Siha said: "What's this, I'll end up, how many people can knock him over!" "He is a famous warrior in the Western Xia Kingdom, after coming to the Great Song Dynasty, when he was in the Western Xia, he was not impressed because the Great Song Dynasty was destroyed, and when he came here, he saw that most of the Song people were weak, and he was even more proud.

Li Shitong looked at Hua Chonggui, Hua Chonggui shook his head and said: "No, if we only rely on Wu Siha to end up alone, don't say whether there is an accident, that is, whether he can hold on to it is a question." ”

Li Shitong said in embarrassment: "But among the people we came to win this time, except for Wu Siha, there are no brave generals, is it possible that I will come to the end?" ”

Hua Chonggui smiled and said: "The ninth prince can rest assured, before the villain came, he thought of what to do when he wanted to do it, so he specially invited two friends, and now they are outside the city of Tokyo, the villain will go out of the city and invite them here, with their strength, it is enough to deal with the forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Li Shitong was overjoyed and said: "Then Mr. go quickly, as long as someone can help the lonely king deal with this matter, the lonely king will be rewarded afterwards." ”

Hua Chonggui smiled: "Chitose can rest assured." After speaking, he immediately left the inn and went out of the city overnight, although the current Tokyo has set up a ban on Zongze's management, but Hua Chonggui found Geng Nanzhong to say yes, this Geng Nanzhong also knew that he didn't end up, so he didn't want to face, he just took his money and just ran errands, so he got through the relationship, sent Hua Chonggui out of the city, and asked him to find someone.

This Hua Chonggui went to the Western Xia Kingdom, in the green forest, there were also a few friends, this time and Li Shitong on the way to the Central Plains, he happened to meet two partners in the green forest in the past, one is called 'Da Tai Sui' Xiahou Lang, the other is called 'Little Divine Shot' Cao Yi, the two of them saw Hua Chonggui's brocade clothes and jade clothes, and were picked up and sent by the officials of the Song Dynasty, they were envious, and they wanted Hua Chonggui to introduce them to Li Shitong, so they followed all the way, but Hua Chonggui was a villain, he was afraid that Xiahou Lang and Cao Yi would enter Li Shitong's curtain, Li Shitong, who respected the martial artist, took a fancy to him and shared his favor, so he kept dragging it out, but he didn't expect to use these two now.

Xia Houlang and Cao Yi both had criminal records, so they didn't dare to enter Tokyo, and after getting Hua Chonggui's guarantee, they followed him into Tokyo and went to meet Li Shitong.

Wu Siha tried, and after trying out that both of them had good martial arts, he recommended to Li Shitong that Li Shitong naturally had good courtesies to Xiahou Lang and Cao Yi, both of whom felt flattered, patted their chests and promised that they would defeat those forbidden troops, so that Li Shitong was extremely satisfied, and he just waited for the big competition.

Among the generals in Beijing, there is a rumor that there is only one Wushaha in the Western Xia generals and some bravery, but they are just ordinary reckless men, and they have no special skills, and the rest of them are all ministers, and they have no great ability.

Wang Duo didn't know that Li Shitong had found foreign aid, and felt that there was nothing wrong with this statement, so he chose his two cronies, Wang Dewu, the new head of the 800,000 forbidden army, and Situ Chun, the commander of the imperial camp, to fight.