The group slowly traveled west, Su Jin was reluctant to take the first step alone, although there were still a lot of affairs waiting for him, but he still needed to be idle for a few days, Su Jin was a person who didn't like to be busy, and he could really relax along the way, and take everyone to enjoy the scenery along the way, which made him feel very comfortable.

When passing through the small valley with Xia Siling's fish and water, Su Jin's old trick was repeated, and the two sisters Huanniang and Rouniang were taken to take a mandarin duck bath.

Han Qi returned to Qinzhou a few days earlier than Su Jin, when Su Jin and his entourage arrived in Qinzhou, he was already anxious, Han Qi returned to Qinzhou this time in addition to handing over Qinzhou affairs with Su Jin, but also served as the minister of Qincha, brought the imperial court to the northwest officials and the military and civilians of the commendation order, Li Zhong was promoted to the prefect of Weizhou, Pan Jiang was appointed as the deputy commander of the deployment of Jingyuan Road, Wei Songhe was appointed as the general judge of Weizhou, the former Qinfeng Road Longzhou Governor Jingtai was appointed as the deputy commander of the Qinfeng Road deployment, and the rest of the soldiers and civilians who defended the city were rewarded.

Su Jin's side of the dynasty Ma Han and other four major foodies because of their meritorious work in following Su Jin to destroy the grain and grass of the Xia army, and they were also promoted from the head of the Ma army to the deputy commander of the Ma army, and were awarded the title of captain of the fruit, which is already the position of the intermediate military attache of the seventh grade, although the position of the deputy commander of the Ma army is somewhat unworthy of the name, and the subordinates of the four are only one hundred horse troops each, but it is already quite enviable.

After staying in Qinzhou for a few days, after handing over official duties to Han Qi, he met with officials from Longzhou, Fengxiang, Chengzhou, Minzhou and other places to which Qin Fenglu belonged, relieved and praised him, ordered everyone to perform their duties, and set up a banquet to send Han Qi to Beijing Gao, and then turned around and settled down at home.

Su Jinxin's position is Jingyuan Qin Feng two roads through the slight recruitment of pacification envoys and knowledge of Qinzhou, so it is natural to settle the family in Qinzhou, Qinzhou is much better than Weizhou in terms of scale and prosperity, but there is no good residence in the northwest, fortunately, Han Qi placed a large garden in the back hall of the road envoy Yamen, which is a residence built by Han Qi at his own expense, because Han Qi is an elegant person, and the requirements for the residence are extremely high, this time he was transferred back to Beijing, and this house was naturally given to Su Jin's family to live; Of course, Su Jin also symbolically gave some cost price, for Han Qi, whether the money is not a big problem, the most important thing is to have a good relationship with Su Jin.

During his stay in Qinzhou, Su Jin briefly learned about the general situation of Qinfeng Road, although there are many things to do urgently, but no matter how urgent it is, he must put it back, because the negotiations with Xia Guo will be carried out in Weizhou, and he must go to Weizhou to end the matter.

Su Jin left Zhao Hu and a hundred horse troops to garrison the Yamen, and took Zhang Long and Huanniang to bid farewell to Yan Biyun and others and set off for Weizhou; Since the end of October, the weather in the northwest has gradually become colder, after entering November, the first heavy snow has fallen, the snow on Qinfeng Road is still smaller, but the further north the snow, the heavier the snow, the heavy snow near Weizhou is more than half a foot deep, and the march is quite difficult.

Su Jin was worried on the road, this heavy snow came, Weizhou city does not know what it will be like, Weizhou, which experienced a big war, delayed the construction of houses in the city, I don't know how people spend this cold winter, but don't be like Yangzhou, some people freeze to death and starve to death, that is their own dereliction of duty.

But as soon as he entered the city of Weizhou, Su Jin was stunned by the scene in front of him, the streets in the city were clean, the snow was cleared, and everywhere was a warm construction scene, Li Chong, the prefect of Weizhou, who came to greet him, introduced to Su Jin that since the second half of the war, tens of thousands of Weizhou people who had been evacuated before the war returned to Weizhou, Li Chong considered that winter was coming, so he immediately ordered the reconstruction work to start without waiting for Su Jin to come back.

After the war, there are really a lot of leftover materials, rolling wood and stone can be recycled and reused, Li Chong according to Su Jin's original plan, in the south and north of the city two planned places to build thousands of wood and stone houses, to the first heavy snow falls, more than half of the people have moved into the new house in the rest of the month, plus the original habitable houses in the city, nearly 70,000 people in Weizhou City will basically not be frozen.

In terms of eating, Li Chong adopted a rationing system, distributing relief food according to the population every day, and those who participated in labor could get additional remuneration, although it was a bit cumbersome, but the rationing system was extremely necessary at the moment, which was greatly appreciated by Su Jin, Li Chong was a master of government affairs, and he basically didn't have to worry about himself.

At present, the only problem I am worried about is the heating problem of the residents, it is not enough to eat a full stomach for several months in the harsh winter, and it can be frozen into popsicles when urinating outdoors in the northwest, and if there is no firewood in the house for heating, it will freeze to death in the middle of the night, and the people have no bedding and clothes to protect against the cold, so it is urgent to prepare enough firewood.

When Su Jin raised this question, Li Zhong rolled his eyes and said: "It's a pity that the place where the wood can be picked on the eastern slope of Longshan was burned, and the southern slope was cut down when Brother Su ordered it to be rebuilt, and there are stumps everywhere, and the firewood problem is indeed difficult to solve." ”

Su Jin scratched his head and said: "At that time, the fire burned his eyebrows, but I couldn't imagine that it was so far, no matter what, even if it was far away, I had to send someone to cut wood deep in the mountains and come back, I must not freeze to death this winter, I don't have the energy to do this matter, you can only think of a way, I have to negotiate with Xia Ren now, and only after the negotiation is over can I have the energy to take care of these things." ”

Li Chong nodded, this was his business, he is now the prefect of Weizhou, and the livelihood of the people in the city is what he should be concerned about, Li Chong sent a team of people with a large number of livestock to cut down trees in the depths of Longshan to transport them back, and ordered people to collect dead branches and scraps in the city, but Li Chong also knew that this was not a way, the felling team had to go to the west for nearly eighty miles to cut down and transport back, and the road was closed by heavy snow, it was difficult to have any effect, and the timber around the city and the remaining materials after the war must be left for building houses to keep out the cold, So we need to think differently.

Su Jin didn't have time to take care of these for the time being, the negotiation period was approaching, and he had to receive the Western Xia envoys who came to settle these things.

When it was learned that Su Jin was the new negotiation envoy, Xia felt very tricky, and the battle of Weizhou was defeated in the hands of this person, and now the negotiation with him was naturally three points shorter from the momentum, after weighing it again and again, Li Yuanhao decided to let Zhang Yuan deal with Su Jin, Zhang Yuan was full of economy and resourcefulness, and Zhang Yuan was a Han person, and he had a thorough understanding of the psychology and habits of the Han people, so it was more appropriate for him to go.

On November 13, the envoys of the Xia State arrived as promised, and the negotiation venue was set up above the Yamen Hall of the Road Mansion. Su Jin didn't expect that the person who came to negotiate turned out to be a personable Han man, and after the person who came to show his identity with a document certificate, Su Jin knew that this was Zhang Yuan, who had only heard of his name and had not met him.

Su Jin remembered that when he was negotiating with Xiao Temo in the capital, several groups of party assassins infiltrated Bianliang City with the intention of assassinating Xiao Temo, so as to provoke the Song and Liao countries to make a big fight, and this strategy was from Zhang Yuan, at that time Su Jin felt that this Zhang Yuan was not simple; It's a pity that although the plan is wonderful, it was smashed by a bunch of wimps, even so, Su Jin was still impressed by the name Zhang Yuan.

The two sides sat opposite each other according to a case, and the servants led by them divided the combat forces behind them, and each showed its own words at the beginning of the negotiation.

"It turns out that you are Lord Zhang Yuan, you have admired the name for a long time, originally I thought that Lord Zhang must be a dry old man with a wrinkled face, but I didn't expect it to be a personable and weak gentleman, it is really better to meet than to be famous." Su Jin said with a smile.

Zhang Yuan bowed and said: "I also thought that Master Su Jinsu was a rough man with strong martial arts, but I didn't expect it to be a young man in the turbid world, you thought wrong, I also thought wrong, this can be regarded as each other." ”

Su Jin ha: "Lord Zhang must be very disappointed, do you think that negotiating with him is a loss of identity?" ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "Lord Su thinks too much, I know the rules of the Song Dynasty, generally the envoy can be a seven-rank civil official, and as far as I know, Lord Su has newly awarded Jingyuan Qin Feng two road envoys, and he is a third-grade minister, which shows that your country attaches great importance to this negotiation." ”

Su Jin waved his hand and said: "You are wrong, what should be paid attention to is Li Yuanhao, I Da Song didn't take this negotiation seriously, it is because of this that I, a layman who does not know how to negotiate, was allowed to act as a negotiation envoy. ”

Zhang Yuan smiled and said: "Lord Su is not leaky, but we don't have to dwell on these, since both countries have the intention of negotiating peace, why don't we get straight to the point, talk less nonsense, and talk more about things that are beneficial to both sides." ”

Su Jin sneered: "That's right, but I want to correct you a mistake, this is not a negotiation between the two countries, my Great Song Dynasty has never recognized the establishment of the Western Thief, if Lord Zhang doesn't understand this and wants to fool me verbally, then we don't have to talk about it." ”

Zhang Yuandao: "Is it possible that the people of the Song Kingdom are so arrogant? It seems that Master Su is also not exempt from vulgarity, the founding of the country of Daxia has become a fact, whether your country admits it or not, it cannot change this fact, and it is better not to mention the self-deception of the bell and the bell. ”

Su Jin Zhengse said: "This is a matter of principle, I think Master Zhang hasn't figured out my position in the Great Song Dynasty, and you don't want to think about it, why are we going to war?" It's not because Li Yuanhao rebelled against the Song Dynasty and became independent, if not, how could he have been fighting for years and years? Is there a defeat in your Weizhou? How did you and I sit down at this negotiating table? If you can't even solve the cause, what is there to talk about? ”

Zhang Yuan rolled his eyes and said, "This ...... We don't need to dwell on the details, let's enter the main topic, since the two sides negotiate peace, we must show sincerity, the two sides have been fighting for a long time, and there is no victory or defeat between them, it can be said that both sides are defeated, and adults don't have to take the battle of Weizhou to remind me that the Great Xia army was defeated, I still have hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Great Xia, and I can't threaten if I want to threaten. ”

Su Jin smiled: "Very good, backbone, it seems that there is not much common language between us, and the basic consensus has not yet been reached, in view of this, I have a proposal, Lord Zhang doesn't know if he is interested." ”

Zhang Yuan said indifferently: "What is the proposal, let's listen to it." ”