On the day of Zhang Ren's funeral, Zhang's mansion was full of vegetarianism, Zhang Xiaojie cried bitterly regardless of his identity, and the people in the mansion were also sad, and the guests who came to the funeral were all sad and sad, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan stood in the crowd, and they also shed two tears decently.

Originally, today was also the day when Yelu Hongji left Beijing to go to the palace of Taizi Mountain, but because of Zhang Renxian's funeral, it was deliberately postponed for one day, which shows that Yelu Hongji attaches great importance to Zhang Xiaojie's father and son, and it is precisely because of this that Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji have time to come to Zhang Renxian's funeral.

According to custom, the deceased will generally stay at home for seven days before being buried, but Zhang Renxian's body only stayed in the princess's mansion for three days, and then was sent to Zhang's mansion until he stayed in Zhang's mansion for another four days, making up enough for seven days, and then buried immediately, the whole process can be said to be very hasty.

Zhao Yan watched Zhang Ren enter the funeral with his own eyes, at this time he lay quietly in the coffin, looking very peaceful, and finally the coffin was completely nailed, and then carried out and buried in the cry of the family, the front carrying the banner was a five-year-old boy, it is said that Zhang Renxian and a maid gave birth to a concubine, originally was not qualified to carry the banner for him, but because Zhang Renxian had no other sons, so in the end he could only set up this child as a son-in-law.

Seeing that the funeral procession was getting farther and farther away, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan returned to the carriage, but at this time, Zhao Yan asked with a puzzled face: "Big brother, are you now, Zhang Renxian's wife, Princess Zheng Guo, didn't attend his funeral?" ”

Not only Princess Zheng Guo, but even Zhang Renxian's younger brother Zhang Yixian also did not participate. It seems that the cause of Zhang Renxian's death is very intriguing! Zhao Ji also said with a smile at this time.

"That's true, is it really like the outside world rumored, because Zhang Yixian wanted to mistreat Princess Zheng Guo, and as a result, Zhang Renxian was angry to death, and at the same time, Princess Zheng Guo no longer admitted that she was the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family in a fit of anger?" Zhao Yan also touched his chin and muttered to himself at this time.

On the second day of Zhang Renxian's death, Shangjing began to spread that Zhang Yixian took the initiative to move Zheng Guogong's feet, and as a result, Zhang Renxian was angry to death, and finally Princess Zheng Guo raised a sword to avenge her husband. Soon spread throughout the city of Tokyo. This made Zhang Xiaojie's mansion the focus of discussion again, and today Zhang Yixian and Princess Zheng Guo did not appear at the funeral, which also confirmed this rumor from the side.

However, since Zhang Renxian is dead, Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan are too lazy to care about the Zhang family's affairs. I drove back to the post house to prepare. After all, tomorrow I will go to Taizi Mountain with Yelu Hongji. At that time, Yelu Hongji's birthday banquet will also be held there, and according to Zhao Yan's speculation, Yelu Chongyuan's father and son are also likely to carry out a coup d'état when the birthday banquet is held. Therefore, for your own safety, you must be fully prepared.

After returning to the post station, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan immediately prepared separately. Zhao Ji went to arrange the guards of the mission, speaking of which, there were a total of 1,000 guards who came with Zhao Yan and their mission this time, and they were all elites in the army, and their combat effectiveness was quite good, but it was a pity that Zhao Ji could not bring all these guards with him this time to Taizi Mountain, after all, it was Yelu Hongji's palace, and other troops were definitely not allowed to enter, so Zhao Ji and they brought at most fifty guards.

For this situation, Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan have long known, so the guards of these fifty people are all personally selected by Zhao Ji, one of them is Zhou Dong, who has amazing martial arts, and the rest of the people are selected by Zhou Dong to help Zhao Ji, these fifty people must not only value their personal ability, but also be able to cooperate as a whole, so that they can play the greatest role on the battlefield, even if they really meet Yelu Chongyuan's rebels, they must be able to buy time for Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan to escape.

In contrast, Zhao Yan went to the courtyard behind the post house alone, where the carriages brought by the mission were parked, and most of the carriages were for Yelu Hongji's birthday, but Zhao Yan was disdainful of these gifts, and immediately came to two of the carriages covered with black cloth after entering the courtyard, and then he personally boarded the carriage and checked it several times, until there was no mistake, and then he jumped out of the carriage with satisfaction.

On the carriage is the life-saving thing he asked Cao Tong to prepare for him, and it will be sent to the palace with these gifts tomorrow, but this thing is not for Yelu Hongji, but it will be placed in the place where Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji live, but although this thing is not a problem in theory, it actually has great risks, so Zhao Yan will never use them until the moment of life and death.

The time of the night passed quickly, the next morning, the entire nobles and officials of the capital city got up early, and then rode or rode to the south gate of the capital, a moment later, the huge convoy led by Yelu Hongji also drove out of the palace, and then met with the nobles outside the city gate, all the way to the south, after nearly a day's journey, finally arrived at the foot of the Prince Mountain of the Luan River.

The Luanhe River of the Liao State does not refer to the river located in Hebei in the later generations, but a river in the south of the Shangjing City, the river flows through the Shangjing City from west to east, and finally flows into the Liao River into the sea, it can be said that it is one of the most important rivers in the Liao State, according to the customs of the Liao State, the emperor lives in different palaces during the four seasons, and there is a summer palace under the Prince Mountain of the Luanhe River, and the birthday banquet of Yelu Hongji is also held in this palace.

This time, in order to celebrate Yelu Hongji's birthday, almost all the upper-class nobles of the entire Liao Kingdom came, except for those who served in a distant place and couldn't come back, but these people also brought valuable birthday gifts, so the entire Luanhe Palace was shouting and neighing for a while, and it immediately became very lively.

Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan and other envoys of the Song State were assigned to live in a palace in the south of the palace, which is a special envoy living area, in addition to the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty, there are also envoys from Dali, Xixia and other countries also live here, for example, when staying here just now, Zhao Yan saw two Xixia envoys for the first time, but the other party looked at him with a very unfriendly gaze, Zhao Yan naturally did not give the other party a good face, anyway, the Xixia people were originally a gang of robbers in his eyes, as long as this time can make the vitality of the Liao State greatly hurt, Then the Great Song Dynasty would have a chance to destroy Western Xia within two years.

After a day of carriage, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan were also a little tired, but they came to the residence without resting, but sat and waited for Su Shi to come back, it is not a simple matter to wish Yelu Hongji's birthday, but there are strict etiquette requirements, plus time is pressing, so Su Shi has no time to rest at all, but was taken by the officials of the Ministry of Rites of Liao to visit the venue of the birthday banquet, and what to do when and when it comes, these need to obey the other party's arrangement, after all, the guest is as the host.

After a while, I saw Su Shi rushing in, and when he saw Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan, he immediately said with a mysterious face: "Two highnesses, guess who I saw today?" ”

"Brother Zizhan, don't play dumb riddles, which noble lady did you meet?" Zhao Yan said with a smile, although Su Shi is also a deputy envoy, he doesn't know Zhao Yan's plan, it's not that he doesn't trust him, but Su Shi is also famous in Liao during this time, and often receives many banquets, especially the noblewomen of Liao, who are very welcome to him, a talented man, plus he will get drunk every time he participates in a banquet, so Zhao Ji is worried that he will lose his words after drinking, so he will keep it a secret, in fact, only Zhao Ji, Zhao Yan and Huang Wude in the entire mission know that Yelu Chongyuan is going to rebel.

"Hehe, the king of the county, you would never guess that today I actually met the princess Zheng Guo who had just died of her husband, and the other party did not wear filial piety, so it can be seen that the rumors about her in the outside world are likely to be true, and the husband and wife relationship between Princess Zheng Guo and Zhang Renxian is likely to have been dissolved." Su Shi said with a gossip on his face at this time.

Hearing this, Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan glanced at each other helplessly, they had Yelu Chongyuan's rebellion in their hearts, where did they still have the heart to pay attention to the gossip between Princess Zheng Guo and Zhang Renxian?

Su Shi also saw that Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan were not interested in their own topics at this time, which made him a little embarrassed, in order to alleviate this atmosphere, so Zhao Yan smiled and said: "Brother Zizhan, you went to visit the venue of the birthday banquet just now, does the other party have any special requirements?" ”

Hearing Zhao Yan's question, Su Shi breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile: "The king of the county doesn't have to worry, this birthday banquet is the same as in previous years, first the hundred officials congratulated, and then the envoys of our countries stepped forward in turn to offer birthday gifts, which is basically no different from the etiquette of our Great Song Dynasty. ”

The order of the gift seems to be unimportant, but in fact it is a part of the etiquette, which is generally arranged according to the national strength, for example, on Zhao Shu's birthday, the first gift must be the envoy of the Liao State, and the emperor of the Liao State will do the birthday, and the first gift in the past is naturally the Great Song Dynasty, but since the rise of the Western Xia, there have been several times when the Liao State has ranked the Western Xia in front of the Great Song Dynasty, which has caused the dissatisfaction of the Great Song Dynasty envoys, and even some of the strictness may also cause the deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Next, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yan listened to Su Shi explain the arrangements for the birthday banquet again, and the rest was nothing, but when Zhao Yan heard that Yelu Hongji's birthday banquet was going to be held for three days in a row, except for the first day when they needed to give gifts to Yelu Hongji, the remaining two days were basically eating, drinking, and having fun, and they might not even see Yelu Hongji, which made his heart suddenly move, maybe he and Zhao Yan could take this opportunity to get out? (To be continued!)

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