In the afternoon, the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji, Xiangguo Fubi and Wen Yanbo, the three of them were specially summoned by the Empress Dowager Cao to drink tea, the Empress Dowager Cao naturally also read today's newspaper, living in the deep palace all the year round, almost isolated from the world, the prosperous newspaper of the Great Song Dynasty has become the biggest expectation of the palace people every day, and it has also become their conversation after tea and dinner.

Empress Dowager Cao was no exception, she ordered all the newspapers in the capital, and every afternoon, she had to spend two hours reading the newspapers, a habit that could hardly be shaken.

The three of them met the Empress Dowager in Ci'an Palace, saluted, and Empress Dowager Cao invited the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji and the two left and right ministers to sit down.

Empress Dowager Cao took out the special war report and asked: "I saw a good news today, but unfortunately the newspaper was published too shortly, and the mourning family still wants to know some more news." ”

Zhao Wei bowed and said: "The southern defense line was broken by using the flying eagle to send a message, and it was also very brief, Di Shumi led an army of 50,000 troops to attack from behind the defense line, and the Western Xia army was caught off guard, breaking through thirty-six villages in a row, and capturing Weizhou, Yinzhou and Xiazhou.

The main forces of the Western Xia army were concentrated in Youzhou, Hongzhou and Yanzhou, and they originally planned to counterattack, but Han Xiangguo and General Chong had led 300,000 troops to kill, and they had to retreat north, but they were blocked by Di Shumi's army, and the 60,000 Western Xia army was trapped in Yanzhou. ”

Empress Dowager Cao nodded, "Can we destroy Western Xia this time?" ”

"Back to the emperor's grandmother, as long as there are no major accidents, it should be possible."

Empress Dowager Cao took another copy of the "Military Newspaper" run by the Cao family, and said with a smile: "I read an article yesterday, saying that there is still a main force in Western Xia in He Nanshan, have you reminded Xiao Fan Xianggong?" ”

Zhao Ji hurriedly said: "He Nanshan's army should be the party's traditional cavalry, they have been fighting with the Song army for decades, they are not as many as hundreds of thousands of troops, at most they can gather 100,000 cavalry, of which 50,000 are deployed in the Hexi Corridor, and 10,000 are deployed in Juyanhai, and there are 20,000 cavalry in the Hehuang area to confront us, and they can use the cavalry to support Xingqing Mansion is only 20,000 or 30,000 people, Xiao Fan Xianggong is very wary of them, and sent a large number of scouts to monitor them. ”

At this time, Fu Bi smiled and said: "Regarding the Western Xia Army in the Hexi Corridor, there is something that needs to be reported to the Queen Mother, the Tubo leader Dong Yu will soon arrive in the capital and will discuss with us the coalition army to attack the Western Xia Army in the Hexi Corridor." ”

Dong Yu was the leader of the Qing Tang Dynasty and Tubo, controlling the northern part of present-day Qinghai and part of southwestern Gansu, his father Jiao Luo led the army to defeat Li Yuanhao's invasion of the Hehuang region, and established the national policy of Lian Song to resist Xia, after Jiao Kuoluo's death, his son Dong Yu inherited his national policy and has maintained close ties with the Song Dynasty.

"Tubo also peeps into the Hexi Corridor?" Empress Dowager Cao said coldly.

Wen Yanbo said with a smile: "Please don't worry about the Queen Mother, today's Tubo is no longer the Tubo of the Tang Dynasty, the Qingtang Tubo is only a branch of the Tubo tribes, where can it compete with the Great Song Dynasty, it's just that the Western Xia army in the Hexi Corridor peeps at the river from time to time, making them restless, this time the Song army attacked Xia, they saw the opportunity, and only then put forward the plan of joining the Song Dynasty to attack Xia, to destroy Tubo, and the Hexi Corridor must be returned to the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Empress Dowager Cao relaxed a little, and asked again: "Will the Liao State send troops to interfere with our plan to destroy Xia?" ”

It's also the most hotly debated thing in the newspapers, and she's certainly concerned.

Fu Bi said: "Empress Dowager Qiyu, we have just received news that Yelu Hongji, the emperor of Liao, will send a special envoy to the Great Song Dynasty to mediate the war between the Great Song Dynasty and Western Xia. ”

"What does that mean?" Empress Dowager Cao asked puzzled.

"That is to say, the Liao State gave up interfering in the Great Song Dynasty to attack the Xia by force, and only used diplomacy to ease the relationship between the Song and Xia as much as possible, which is actually the Liao State to find a step for itself."

Empress Dowager Cao nodded lightly, "The 600,000 army has entered the Western Xia, and the Mourning family is really looking forward to it, hearing the news of the Song Dynasty's destruction of the Western Xia, the Mourning family can also explain to the first emperor if they pass away in the future." ”

Speaking of this, Empress Dowager Cao's face turned cold, she took out a "tabloid" and turned out an article against the Fan family, and pushed it in front of Zhao Ji, the son of heaven, "Have you read this article?" ”

Zhao Ji nodded, "These are all nonsense, obviously trying to provoke the imperial court's distrust of Xiao Fan Xianggong, and then change the commander, and the imperial grandmother should ignore it." ”

Empress Dowager Cao said coldly: "The mourning family doesn't want to pay attention to it, but at noon, Princess Wu sent a statement to the mourning family, she wants to resign from the title of princess, and implores the mourning family to agree, what do you say the mourning family should do?" ”

Zhao Ji was stunned, what's going on? Why did Fanning's wife resign from the name of princess.

Wen Yanbo said: "Queen Mother, the princess is neither a title nor an official position, unless King Wu abolishes his wife, it cannot be removed, Princess Wu should know this truth!" ”

"Yes! People are working hard for the court on the front line with their husbands, but the court allows others to wantonly bully their weak wives and young children, people are forced to have no choice, even the princess doesn't dare to be the princess, we are still here to reason with others, you, the emperor, have done it calmly, but you two Xiangguo don't take it seriously, tomorrow Fanning will hand over a letter of resignation, and I won't give you my life, official, what should you do? ”

The sweat on Zhao Ji's forehead flowed down, and he hurriedly knelt down in front of the imperial grandmother to plead guilty, "It's the grandson who didn't think it through, and the grandson corrected it immediately." ”

"What about the two of you?"

Empress Dowager Cao glanced at Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo, "Is the Zhizheng Hall also inconsiderate?" ”

The Son of Heaven knelt down, Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo couldn't stand anymore, and the two also knelt down, Fu Bi was ashamed and said: "It was we who neglected the feelings of the Fan family, and Wei Chen personally wrote and publicly refuted the slanderous words on the tabloids. ”

Empress Dowager Cao's face was a little better, and she nodded and said: "Xiao Fan Xianggong has repeatedly made great contributions, and his prestige in the army is extremely high, if these newspapers are spread to the army, it will seriously affect the morale of the army and shake the morale, this truth even I understand as a female streamer, you let it go, the mourning family really doesn't know what to say about you, the two ministers go down!" What to do, the governor of the hall himself watched and did it, and the mourning family didn't want to say it a second time. ”

Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo retired, and Empress Dowager Cao said to Zhao Ji again: "You should know that the "Letter Daily" is run by the Zhu family, but the "Letter Daily" has never said a word about this matter, in fact, Zhu Pei is waiting for the court to come forward, Zhu Pei has liked her since she was a child, she is a person who is soft on the outside and strong on the inside, she complained to the Mourning family, in fact, she took the overall situation into account, if she left the Great Song Dynasty with her family in a fit of anger and went to Beidao, do you think Fan Ning can still give you peace of mind?" ”

Zhao Ji said with a face full of shame: "Sun Er knows that he is wrong. ”

"How are you going to solve this?"

"Refut the rumors, make things clear, and then I will ask the queen to go to the Fan Mansion to appease Princess Wu in person."

Empress Dowager Cao shook her head, "This is not enough!" ”

She said in a deep voice: "If your grandfather deals with this matter, he must find out this Li Guangbai, no matter who this person is, he will be labeled as fornicating with the enemy, only in this way can the reputation of the Fan family be saved, and Fan Ning can better work for you, do you understand the meaning of mourning the family?" ”

"Grandson understood!"

..........

Early the next morning, Empress Xiang came to Zhu's mansion to visit Fanning's mother, wife and children, and gave Fanning's mother, Zhang's palace brocade, 500 horses to show her condolences to the family of the expedition commander.

At noon, the right minister, Fu Bi, and the left minister, Wen Yanbo, published a feature article on the front page of the Hong Kong Economic Journal and the tabloid newspaper, respectively, refuting Li Guangbai's rumors.

In the article, Fu Bi makes it clear that Fanning's two brothers were the first merchants to go to Kunzhou, risking being killed by the natives by being the first to discover gold sand in Kunzhou's rivers.

For this reason, Fanning specially wrote to the Son of Heaven and submitted an application for mining gold sand, which was specially approved by the Son of Heaven to allow small-scale mining for three years, employing no more than 100 people, as a reward for Fanning to open up Kunzhou for the imperial court.

As a condition for gold mining, the Fan brothers and other miners were responsible for prospecting for the imperial court in Kunzhou, where the gold and silver mines were discovered by the Fan brothers and handed over to the imperial court free of charge, and the Fan family was not the only one who received special permission from the Son of Heaven to mine gold at that time, and even Zhang Yaozuo was also approved to mine silver in the Ryukyu Prefecture.

In refuting the purchase of islands from overseas, Fu Bi even pointed out that the imperial court encouraged big businessmen and meritorious worlds to purchase land overseas, and allowed overseas territories to exercise conditional autonomy.

At present, there are 1,433 families and businessmen who have purchased islands and land overseas, and the Fan family is only one of them, and the island purchased by the Fan family is the farthest away from the Great Song Dynasty, and there are cannibal aborigines on the nearby islands.

Fu Bi also pointed out that the island purchased by the Fan family was tens of thousands of miles away from the Great Song Dynasty, and the imperial court did not know that there were islands here, and the islands did not belong to the Great Song Dynasty, and the Fan family could get this island without paying a penny, but the Fan brothers still paid 80,000 taels of gold for it, in fact, they returned the gold they found in Kunzhou to the imperial court.

This is exactly the embodiment of Fanning's strict requirements for himself, the imperial court, and the Great Song Dynasty.

Fu Bi pointed out sharply at the end of the article that when the Song army's attack on Western Xia had reached the most critical moment, some people spread rumors at this critical juncture in an attempt to influence the imperial court to change commanders on the spot, so that the Great Song Dynasty's strategy of destroying Xia fell short.

Wen Yanbo's article took out the edict of the first emperor approving gold prospecting for the Fan family, the Cao family, the Gao family, and the Pang family, and published it in the newspaper, and at the same time disclosed the price and location of the Fan family's purchase of the island, as well as the price stipulated by the imperial court, and used ironclad facts to refute Li Guangbai's slander of the Fan family.

The people of the capital angrily denounced the tabloid for spreading rumors, and the strong pressure forced the tabloid to print a special issue overnight, publicly stating that the author's article did not represent the position of the newspaper, and the newspaper resolutely supported the Pingxia War of the Great Song Dynasty, and apologized to the Fan family for the harm suffered as a result.

The next day, Li Guangbai revealed his true face, it turned out to be Zhang Yaozuo's former son-in-law Zhao Jinglun, the current Dr. Guozijian, Dali Temple found several secret correspondence with the Western Xia in his study, the truth was revealed, and the author of the concocted article turned out to be a spy of the Western Xia.

On the same day, the tabloid newspaper was ordered to stop publishing the newspaper of the day and suspend business for a month.

In the aftermath of this turmoil, the newspaper lost nearly eighty percent of its readers, making it fall from the first largest newspaper to the last of the thirteen newspapers in Beijing.

There was a series of turmoil in Bianliang, and Liang Yiburi, who should be one of the protagonists, didn't know anything, he had left the capital and was on the way back to China.