A few days later, outside the old Cao Gate of Kaifeng City, Zhao Shu took hundreds of civil and military officials to see off the Liao State for the envoy of Zhao Xu, the king of Ying, this time should be regarded as the highest standard of the Great Song Dynasty in recent years, the team not only has Zhao Ji this envoy, but also two deputy envoys such as Zhao Yan, the king of Guangyang County, the number of accompanying the envoy has reached more than 2,000 people, of course, most of them are guards, but it is enough to show that the Great Song Dynasty attaches great importance to this envoy.

"Xu'er, Yan'er, your two brothers are going to Liao this time, in addition to congratulating Yelu Hongji on his birthday, you should also see and think more, and carefully observe the situation within Liao, but remember not to meddle in the internal affairs of Liao!" Zhao Shu looked at the two sons standing in front of him, and said with a serious face.

"Son-in-law obeys the teachings!" Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan bowed to Zhao Shu together, in fact, Zhao Shu had told them many times when he was in the palace, but when he parted, Zhao Shu told them again, it seems that he is not particularly at ease about the matter of his two sons going to Liao, but after all, he is the king of a country, and at this time, personal feelings can only be put behind, and every qiē must be focused on state affairs.

"Your Majesty, the auspicious time has arrived, and the mission is about to depart!" At this moment, Han Qi stepped forward and reminded Zhao Shu. The ancients had to choose an auspicious day when traveling, and for such a big event as a mission, not only to choose an auspicious day, but also to count the time of travel, if the time was missed, it might even be necessary to travel on another day.

Zhao Shu looked up at the sky, and knew that he couldn't talk like this to his two sons anymore, so he ordered the mission to set off, and then waved goodbye to Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan until the entire mission walked out for several miles. Zhao Shu sighed and returned to the city with a huge send-off procession.

Zhao Yan in the mission did not turn back as often as others, because he had already told Cao Ying and Xue Ning'er this morning, asking them not to see him off, lest he be reluctant to leave. Cao Ying and the others agreed to this, but when Zhao Yan went out, they were sent by Cao Ying and the others to Shangshui Village, and waited until Zhao Yan was about to arrive at the city gate, and when they looked back, they still didn't go back. It is precisely because of this that Cao Ying and the others are not in the send-off team. At least Zhao Yan didn't see them just now.

"Third brother, what are you thinking, why do you look unhappy?" At this time, Zhao Yan rode his horse to Zhao Yan's side and said, in contrast, he was very happy now. First, this is the first time he has taken on such a heavy responsibility as an adult, and in addition, he has been yearning for Liao for a long time, of course, this yearning is not good, he wants to see with his own eyes what the biggest enemy of the Great Song Dynasty is like, only after witnessing the situation of Liao can he think of a way to deal with it in the future.

Regarding Zhao Yan's excitement, Zhao Yan gave him a blank look, and then said honestly: "My Xinna's concubine was just found out to be pregnant a few days ago. This is my first child, and I wanted to accompany her at home until she gave birth, but I didn't expect to accompany my eldest brother to Liaoguo. Do you think I can be happy? ”

Hearing that Zhao Yan was unhappy because of such a "trivial matter", Zhao Yan immediately laughed and said: "The boy is ambitious in all directions, although it is a happy thing for you to have an heir, third brother, it is still not worth mentioning compared to such a major event as going to Liao, and we will only come back in a few months." It should be time to catch up with the birth of your child. ”

As soon as Zhao Ji's words fell, he saw a long-faced young official next to him also come up with a smile and said, "His Royal Highness King Yingwang doesn't know anything. The concubine of the county king Xinna is not simple, it is Xue Ning'er, who was known as the second line of Tokyo before. Now many gentlemen and literati in Tokyo City are jealous of the county king, and the county king has accepted Xue Ning'er for less than two months, and he usually has a beauty in his arms, so he is naturally reluctant to leave! ”

This young official who spoke was also an old acquaintance of Zhao Yan, and he was also Zhao Yan's subordinate, that is, Su Shi, who served as a military officer in the weapons prison, he was the same as Zhao Yan this time, he was the deputy envoy of the mission, and even the reason why he went to Liao was similar to Zhao Yan, because Yelu Hongji likes poetry, so every time he goes to Liao, there must be an official who is proficient in poetry.

"Hahaha~, I see, I said how the third brother is listless, it turns out that he is reluctant to be a gentle township at home!" Zhao Ji heard Su Shi's explanation, and immediately laughed and said, for Xue Ning'er, he had heard of it before, but he was usually so busy that he didn't have time to pay attention to these ups and downs, let alone seen each other, but thinking of Xue Ning'er's great fame, it is estimated that his appearance and talent must be the best choice, no wonder his younger brother is reluctant to leave.

For Su Shi's Zhao Ji's misunderstanding, Zhao Yan had to shake his head helplessly, he didn't even bother to explain, or there was no way to explain, for a big husband like Zhao Ji and Su Shi, the family is just a vassal of their own career, so they will not give up their careers because of their family at all, but Zhao Yan is completely different, he is a family-centered person, it can be said that he and Zhao Ji, Su Shi's world view and outlook on life are completely different, so even if he wants to explain, I'm afraid Zhao Ji They can't understand it, Especially a guy like Su Shi who likes to give away concubines, Zhao Yan has nothing to say to him in terms of family concepts.

"Big brother, what kind of person is that Yelu Hongji, let's go to congratulate him on his birthday this time, is there anything to pay attention to?" At this time, Zhao Yan directly diverted the topic to the matter of their envoy.

Hearing Zhao Yan ask about this, Zhao Yan immediately put away his joking mentality, and said a little sternly: "Speaking of this Yelu Hongji, he is indeed a very talented person, proficient in music and rhythm, good at calligraphy and painting, fond of poetry, and I often compose poems to my subordinates, and also take the courtiers as poetry friends, which can be said to be quite elegant, but at the same time he is addicted to wine, often ignores the government and politics, plus believes in Buddhism, prints Buddhist scriptures and builds temples and towers, and the people are extremely injured and money, and the national strength of the Liao State has been declining in recent years, it can be said that it is all thanks to the gift of Yelu Hongji, But this is a great thing for our Great Song. ”

"His Royal Highness King Yingwang is right, if Yelu Hongji was born in an ordinary family, he would definitely become a great talent like Liu Sanbian, but unfortunately he was born in the emperor's family by mistake, drinking and having fun every day and not thinking about the government, Liao has such an emperor, it will inevitably decline, it is really the blessing of my Great Song Dynasty!" At this time, Su Shi also spoke, and his opinion of Yelu Hongji was completely consistent with Zhao Ji.

Zhao Yan also nodded when he heard this, but then he glanced at Zhao Ji with some disdain, because Zhao Ji, the famous Song Huizong in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, is Zhao Ji's son, and now he says that Yelu Hongji is not doing his job, but his son Zhao Ji is even more unbearable than Yelu Hongji, except for drinking, writing, and playing with women all day long, he has not done anything serious, but not only did the Song Jiang and Fangla uprisings explode in China, but also failed externally, and was finally destroyed directly by the Jin State, and he also ended up in a foreign land. Only the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty is left to survive, so Zhao Ji is not as good as Yelu Hongji, at least Yelu Hongji did not lose the inheritance of his ancestors.

The three of them talked about the situation of the Liao State while walking, although the history of the Liao State was recorded in later generations, but because after the Jin State destroyed the Liao, many historical documents of the Liao State were burned, and even the originally huge Khitan people disappeared mysteriously, as a result, there were not many records of the Liao State in later generations, and Zhao Yan had less contact, at most, he only had some understanding of the lives of important figures such as Yelu Hongji and Yelu Chongyuan, but he knew very little about the customs and customs of the Liao State, fortunately, whether it was Zhao Ji or Su Shi, They all know a lot about Liao, and Zhao Yan also got a lot of information about Liao from them.

"His Royal Highness King Ying, now ten miles away from Beijing, please ask the two Highnesses and Deputy Envoy Su to get off the horse and ride!" Just as Zhao Yan and the three of them were talking, suddenly another acquaintance stepped forward and said, it was Huang Wude, the big intelligence leader next to Zhao Shu, the envoy and the spy have always been indistinguishable from each other, every time the Great Song Dynasty sent a delegation to Liao, it was also a good time to collect intelligence, especially this time there were two princes, Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan, so Zhao Shu specially sent Huang Wude.

Hearing Huang Wude's words, Zhao Yan also nodded at the moment, Zhao Yan greeted him with a smile, and then dismounted with Su Shi, the reason why he rode a horse when he went out of the city just now was to look more powerful, but the road to Liao was far away, if Zhao Ji and the three of them were allowed to ride horses every day, they would definitely tire people to death, so as long as they left Tokyo, they would take a carriage instead.

In fact, not only Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan, but also other civilian personnel in the mission were all changed to carriages, leaving only the generals in the forbidden army guards to ride horses, as for those ordinary forbidden soldiers, they could only rely on two legs to run forward, this is also no way, who let the horses of the Great Song Dynasty be in short supply, in addition to the Western Army and the Hebei Army have a small number of cavalry, only the generals in the Beijing Forbidden Army have horses to travel.

In the evening, Zhao Yan and the others finally arrived at the post station in a small city in the east of Tokyo City to rest, and in the following time, they almost all spent in a hurry, fortunately, their itinerary was carefully arranged in advance, how much they advanced every day, and which post station to rest in was planned in advance, plus the mission was guarded by the forbidden army, so there was no blind guy to stop along the way, which can be said to be very smooth.

It took nearly a month for Zhao Yan's delegation to finally come to Yingzhou, the closest to the Liao State in the Great Song Dynasty, this Yingzhou is not the Yingzhou on the sea in the legend, but a state under the rule of the North Road of the Great Song Dynasty, which was originally Hejian County in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and is now divided into two by the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao State, and the place occupied by the Great Song Dynasty is called Yingzhou, and later changed to Hejian Mansion by Huizong of the Song Dynasty.

When Zhao Yan and their envoy arrived in Yingzhou, all the local officials rushed to greet him, this kind of thing has always been handled by Zhao Yan, Zhao Yan only needs to follow him and nod and smile, but at this moment, Zhao Yan suddenly saw a person among the officials who greeted him, and said to himself a little strangely: "Why is he here?" (To be continued)

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