On the third day after Li Zhang visited Lu Yijian, the prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty, who had ruled the world for 20 years, finally closed his eyes forever, and Zhao Zhen also cried bitterly for this, and then mourned for it in the forbidden garden, and dropped out of the dynasty for three days.

Li Zhang also felt extremely sad about Lu Yijian's death, and his warning to himself before his death also made Li Zhang very grateful, but with the death of Lu Yijian, the position of prime minister was vacant again.

In recent years, with the enhancement of the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty, many capable ministers have also been promoted, especially among the younger generation of officials, there are a lot of materials that can be made, and people like Han Qi, Bao Zheng, Fan Zhongyan, and Ouyang Xiu are the backbone of the ministers.

However, the prime minister is not only looking at ability, in fact, seniority and prestige are the top priority, so for the new prime minister, Han Qi, a young minister with insufficient qualifications and prestige, was excluded from the beginning, so in the end, after discussion, Zhao Zhen finally decided to temporarily replace the prime minister by Yan Shu.

Yan Shu is a genius, he was called a "prodigy" when he was five years old, and he was not the child prodigy in the "Hurt Zhongyong", a mediocre person when he was older, but the more he grew up, the more erudite he became, if he just talked about talent and learning, there were few people in the entire court who could compare with Yan Shu, and Yan Shu's emotional intelligence was also extremely high, and he was very popular in the court, and rarely had evil with others, which also made him appointed as the prime minister, and the resistance in the court was also very small, and it could even be called the expectation of the public.

"Your Majesty takes Yan Shu as his appearance, I'm afraid he wants to let the country recuperate for a while, right?" In the vertical arch hall, Li Zhang asked Zhao Zhen with a smile, Li Zhang did not express any opinion on the appointment and dismissal of the prime minister, which is also related to Lu Yijian's warning before his death, although Zhao Zhen's trust in him has not decreased, but Li Zhang still deliberately avoids some court affairs.

"Yes, Yan Shu is the least resistant, although Yan Shu's ability is not as good as Lu Xiang's, and he is too tactful, but it is precisely like this, when he is in the phase, he will not make any mistakes, and as long as he can 'Xiao Gui Cao Sui' and do it according to the framework set by Lu Xiang before, there will be no big problems!" Zhao Zhen also smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

"I have been in contact with Yan Shu before, he is indeed a person who understands human accidents very well, and is very good at being a person, but what is even more rare is that he is willing to recommend talents, Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others have been recommended by him before, not to mention anything else, just the ability to recognize people is enough to become a generation of good faces!" Li Zhang also smiled after hearing this.

Of course, although Li Zhang praises Yan Shu as a good look, it is precisely because Yan Shu is too smart, and he usually does not leak anything, this kind of person is a talent as an official, and there is nothing to say about learning, but it is not easy to be friends, because it is too stressful to be friends with this kind of person, and a friend with almost no shortcomings will also make people feel very unreal, and it is not easy to make friends, so Li Zhang usually has very little contact with Yan Shu.

"Now that the overall situation has been decided, the strategy for Liao has also been decided, and the south has been stabilized, the only thing that needs to be paid attention to is the Western Regions, but the Western Regions are too far away, and we can't fight for the time being, so we can only pay attention to the party's movements over there, so there will be no major events in the next few years."

When he said this, he saw Zhao Zhen pause for a moment and then said: "In addition, Yan Shu's age is not young, he will only be the prime minister for a few years at most, and then Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan will almost have enough qualifications and prestige, and then select the prime minister from among them, with their ability, it should be enough to help me destroy the Liao State, enter the Western Regions, and restore the land of the Tang Dynasty!" ”

When Zhao Zhen said the end, he also showed an ambitious expression on his face, now he is no longer the only child he was back then, let alone the good old man emperor in history, but a great emperor who is ambitious and works hard to govern the country with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty as his goal.

Seeing Zhao Zhen's resolute expression, Li Zhang suddenly felt a sense of relief, as if he saw that a younger brother who needed his own protection since he was a child had finally grown up, and he could also withstand the wind and rain and pressure by himself, and become a man who stood up to the sky and the country, and he, as a brother, should let go.

Next, Li Zhang and Zhao Zhen chatted about Li Yuanhao's movements in the Western Regions, since Li Yuanhao gained a firm foothold in Qiuzi, he also began to use troops to the Eastern Qarakhanid in the west, and the internal division of the Eastern Qarakhanid could not stop the party cavalry at all, and soon lost a large area of territory and population, which also made Li Yuanhao's strength in the Western Regions expand extremely quickly.

However, Li Yuanhao's choice to gain a foothold in the Western Regions also means that he has almost given up the idea of competing with the Great Song Dynasty, after all, the Western Regions are too far away from the Central Plains, and with the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty, it is unrealistic to want to send troops to the Western Regions, let alone a small country in the Western Regions, even if he really builds a powerful empire in the Western Regions, he will not be able to fight back at all.

"By the way, how about the Nanyang side, I heard that many people have gone to the Nanyang side to do business recently, and even occupied a lot of islands, should we take care of it?" Zhao Zhen suddenly thought about the matter in the south at this time, so he also asked.

Since the last time Li Zhang deliberately showed his wealth and used gold to attract many people's attention to Nanyang, coupled with some of his explicit or implicit agitation in the newspapers, more and more people have set their sights on the ocean, especially some rich and powerful nobles, who have formed fleets to go south, and there are rumors that some people in the capital have become rich because of sea trade every day.

Of course, in this era, going to sea still faces great dangers, in fact, there are many people who go to sea because of this, but people are willing to listen to some of the news they like to hear, so those who die because of going to sea rarely pay attention, but those who get rich are sought after, and the more bizarre the more people believe.

"Everything is going well in Nanyang, the Buddha Kingdom sent a large army to attack Gan Toli Port and returned with a fiasco, and now they honestly don't dare to fight the idea of the port again, but some time ago they supported pirates to rob our maritime merchants, so Dong Qing and they sent troops to clean up a group of sailors who died of the Buddha, and now the other party does not dare to go to sea."

When he said this, he saw Li Zhang pause for a moment and then said: "As for the occupation of the islands, it is indeed there, and if the imperial court wants to come forward, it is okay, but the overseas is too big, and the occupied islands are too scattered, so how to manage it is also a problem!" ”