Autumn goes to the winter solstice, the north wind and heavy snow make the temperature in Bianliang, Tokyo plummet, and there are few people on the streets of the once lively and lively Song Capital City at this time.

However, unlike outside, the Privy Council Hall, where there were five or six smokeless charcoal stoves, was as warm as a spring day, and it was enough for Sun Tu to sit there and wear a single coat, until Tong Mu pushed the door and brought in a cold wind outside, so that he who was looking down at the Chinese book in his hand raised his eyebrows and raised his eyes.

Tong Mu and Sun Tu have become increasingly close in the past few years of cooperation, and there is no apology at this time, while waving his hand to let the servants on the side prepare tea for himself and others, while patting the remaining snow marks on his shoulders, he said: "Are you looking at the northern military report that was sent in an urgent manner of 600 miles last night?" ”

As the current ruler of the DPRK and the Taifu, Tong Mu's news is naturally quite well-informed, even if it is not much related to him in the army, he can grasp the information in the first time. In this regard, Sun Tu didn't care, and nodded lightly: "Exactly, but the Privy Council here in order not to disturb me, so I didn't know about this until I came to the Yamen just now." Fortunately, it wasn't that there was a big change in the front, otherwise I wouldn't have dealt with them for a felony of delaying the military plane. ”

Although he said this very seriously, the smile on the corners of his eyes and mouth still revealed that Sun Taiwei was not really angry, but was in a good mood. After all, since September, the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty has been a success, and in October, even the Liao Kingdom of Kyoto has been taken by Yue Fei and his army, so it can be said that by that time, the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty has achieved a complete victory. The next thing is just a matter of chasing the dead to the north, expanding the results of the battle, and stabilizing the newly acquired Liao City.

So even if Sun Tu only saw the battle report today, it didn't matter, Tong Mu also knew this, so he also quipped: "It's time to give them a good reminder, after all, this is one of the few things that can make Taiwei Sun work hard." ”

Just when he said this, Sun Tu was suddenly stunned, and then laughed on his back, acting extremely cheerful and happy, but he looked a little stunned by the few people around him, I don't know why he was so happy, it couldn't be because he heard Tong Mu's joke that he laughed, right?

Even Tong Mu couldn't help but say after watching him laugh for a while: "Qianli, what are you laughing at?" Could it be that there is some great victory at the front? It's not right, now that the forces in the Liao Kingdom have moved west with Yelu Dashi, they don't dare to fight with us, what good news can there be? ”

Sun Tu suppressed his laughter and happily handed over the battle report in his hand: "Take a look." If you want to say that people are not as good as heaven, sometimes even God is on our side. ”

Tong Mu hurriedly stretched out his hand to take the battle report, and quickly swept it at a glance, under this look, his face also showed ecstasy, and even his body trembled slightly: "It's really God helping me!" I really didn't expect things to develop like this. ”

The two of them behaved like this, which naturally aroused the curiosity of several other officials, until Tong Mu handed over the battle report to them, and when it was circulated, everyone laughed in a burst of tsk: "There is such a thing, I can't imagine that the Liao people will meet the Xia people when the whole country moves west, and the two sides will fight like this......"

It turned out that in late October, the Liao army and the people who were heading west actually collided head-on with the 100,000 troops of the Western Xia, who were reluctant to come and had to come, and could only delay again and again.

It stands to reason that it is difficult for these two sides to meet at that point in time, after all, the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty is almost over, and the Western Xia army should have penetrated deep into the Liao realm early, so the Liao side can naturally think of ways to avoid it. However, the Xixia people, who were selfish and wanted to preserve their strength, kept dragging their feet and marched slowly, until October when they came to the vicinity of Xijing in Liao, thus colliding head-on with the Liao brigade.

To say that the Tangut people are smart this time, it is not bad to lift a stone and shoot themselves in the foot. In the situation at that time, neither the Xia army nor the Liao army had room to dodge, and in the end they could only start the war in a hurry and lose both.

Judging by the strength of the two sides, in fact, the Liao army still has an overwhelming advantage. But because they were migrating as a whole this time, there were too many people in the ranks, which tied their hands and feet, resulting in this battle being extremely unfavorable to them from the beginning, and they could only divide a part of their forces to deal with the Xia army, but the main force had to retreat to the rear to focus on defense.

This leveled the strength between the two sides. In addition, the chief general of Western Xia was also a person who was good at grasping the enemy's weaknesses, and soon formulated a tactic of constantly attacking and harassing the Liao people and causing them to mess up, which dealt a major blow to the Liao people.

As a result, after more than 10 days of tug-of-war, both sides suffered heavy losses. More than half of the 100,000 Western Xia troops were lost, and the Liao side paid 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers killed in battle, as well as hundreds of casualties among the people. This made the Liao people even worse, and the situation really reached a precarious level.

The heavy casualties of such two enemy countries are certainly rejoicing, but what makes Sun Tu even happier is the heavy price paid by the Tangut people for this self-righteous cleverness. If it weren't for the fact that they didn't send troops to the west, I am afraid that this battle would not have caused them to lose their vitality. It's really a kind of pleasure that makes people breathe a lot of bad air.

Tong Mu and the others were also happy, and they bluntly said that this was the retribution of the Western Xia people, who told them to refuse to obey the will of the imperial court and send troops as soon as possible, and the loss was greater than cooperating with the Great Song army to attack Liao.

"Xia Guan thinks that such good news should be spread to the world as soon as possible, so that the people of the world can be happy."

"Of course, the Chinese New Year is coming, and there is no better news than Liaoxia and the two countries attacking each other." Sun Tu also smiled and said, "By the way, how have you done the things mentioned earlier about collecting the wealth of the Liao Kingdom?" There are still many people inside and outside the capital waiting to get back the capital and get interest. ”

It turned out that after the Liao people moved westward, the Great Song Dynasty sent many officials to the Liao to receive and collect the property that the Liao people could not take away in a hurry. You must know that before, the reason why the army could quickly go on the Northern Expedition relied on the issuance of treasury bonds and the strengthening of the Northern Expedition army with civilian wealth. Now that the war has been won, it is natural that it is time to fulfill the promise, and it is time to repay the principal and interest to those people.

Tong Mu laughed when he heard this: "Back to Taiwei's words, I came here today to discuss this matter with you." In fact, in the past two days, there have been relevant property sent to Beijing, if it is calculated according to the profit of two to three percent you set before, the cost is not small, but I am afraid that the remaining to the treasury and the court may not be too much. ”

"Since we have promised the people of the world early on, we have never gone back on our word, otherwise how can we win the trust of the people? What's more, those are just floating wealth, for the imperial court, to conquer the entire territory of the northern Liao State, its land and city and the population of the people are the most important, and it is the place that can add strength to us in the future. Therefore, all these goods could be given to the people who had bought the treasury bonds in the form of interest and principal, as long as there was enough money to give the soldiers rewards and wages. Sun Tu waved his hand and immediately made a decision.

After a pause, he smiled again: "What's more, in this purchase and sale of treasury bonds, my family also paid a lot of money, I can't let my family suffer because of public and private interests, right?" ”

This last sentence immediately caused everyone to burst into laughter, in fact, not only him, Tong Mu, and now the officials who are completely on Sun Tu's side have also more or less paid to buy treasury bonds. This is not only to support the imperial court and Sun Tu, but also to increase an income other than Yulu.

Tong Mu immediately quipped: "Oh? But I don't know how much treasury bond you bought this time, Tai Lieutenant? ”

"It's not much, it's only 50,000." Sun Tu smiled: "I heard that you are the same?" ”

"Yes, I also bought 50,000 yuan of treasury bonds and kept them at home, to be honest, I am really worried that something will happen to the front line in the past few months, causing all my money to be wasted. You know, that's all the net worth I've accumulated over the years. ”

Sun Tu smiled and nodded again: "Who said it wasn't, if we really lose, our whole family will have to drink the northwest wind." There was another burst of laughter, followed by a laugh from the officials on the side.

Seeing the subtle knowledge, just from the fact that Sun Tu and Tong Mu, the two most powerful people in the court today, can only spend 50,000 yuan to buy treasury bonds, it can be seen that they are indeed not as greedy and self-interested as those in power in the past. You must know that although these 50,000 yuan are a large amount of money among the people, and it is money that hundreds of people cannot earn in a lifetime, but for officials, it is only a trivial matter.

At the beginning, Liang Zhongshu congratulated Cai Jing on his birthday, and every year he would prepare a treasure of 100,000 yuan for his father-in-law, and this is just one of Cai Jing's annual offerings. But obviously, Sun Tu, who has a higher goal, disdains to use the power in his hands to seek such personal interests for himself.

It is precisely because of this that the current Great Song Dynasty has swept away the original extravagance and corruption, and has also made the people's lives better. Now there are successive big victories, as well as the benefits of the national debt with interest, which makes the life of the people of the Great Song Dynasty more and more prosperous, and also makes Sun Tu's reputation among the people and in the court reach a new peak.

Today, the people of the world have gradually forgotten that there is a puppet-like emperor Zhao Ji above the court, in the eyes of countless people, Taiwei Sun Tu is the supreme, but in one word determines the entire country, the only person in charge of thousands of Li Shu.

Even the folk have begun to spread a saying that in a few days, Sun Taiwei will be like the original Cao Wei Dynasty Han and Zhao Family Dynasty Zhou, kick Zhao Ji, the puppet emperor, away, and sit in the most valuable position in the world by himself!