That night, Master Zhao Chongyang left a million yuan to the master, which was used to expand Liangzhou City, build the Hou Mansion and house soldiers, and build a wine workshop and an iron workshop. At midnight, Zhao Chongyang said goodbye to his master and Fang Baihua, Pang Qiuxia and others, and Dai Zong, the Shenxing Taibao, blended into the vast night, and embarked on the return journey back to Beijing......

Five days later, the two traveled thousands of miles and arrived in Kaifeng.

Then, Zhao Chongyang arranged Dai Zong to rest in his own mansion, talked and laughed with Liu Qiaoling and Qiu Qiongying for a while, and asked Zhu Wu to bring his students Chen Dong, Zhang Yimin and others to discuss the matter of running the "Tokyo Evening News", and handed over the whole record of the battle of Western Xia and the two poems he wrote to Zhu Wu, and asked Zhu Wu to hand them over to Chen Dong, write a news report, publish it in the inaugural issue, and strive to see the newspaper within three days.

That night, Zhao Chongyang entered the Eight Princes' Mansion through the secret passage and had a secret conversation with the Eight Kings father and son. During the conversation, the following questions were mainly involved:

First, does Zhao Chongyang want to accept the title of marquis? It was not surprising that a fifteen-year-old boy suddenly ascended to such a high position and was suppressed by a group of traitors and bigwigs.

On this issue, the eighth prince has seen it thoroughly. The eighth prince said: "You have made such a great achievement at such a young age, and whether you accept the title of marquis or not will inevitably be suppressed by a cadre of nobles and traitorous ministers, it is better to accept it." Anyway, this is something you have earned with a lot of hard work, as long as you accept the title of marquis, the official position given to you cannot be too low, if you are not too young, it is possible to take over the Privy Council. I guess I'll make you a deputy of the Privy Council, and you will be in the rank of a first-class official. ”

The second is that Zhao Chongyang said that he would take this opportunity to protect Gao Yanei's Gao Zigui and Cai Jing's own nephew Cai Deren as Wu Yilang and Wu Gong Lang, so that the two of them could hang up their five-rank idle posts in the forbidden army in charge of Gao Yu. In this way, at the court meeting, Cai Jing and Gao Yu joined forces, and it was possible to implement the marquis of their master and apprentice and the official positions of the towns of the Western Army.

This point, the father and son of the eighth prince agreed.

The third is to discuss whether we can take this opportunity to bring down Tong Guan this time. Last time, because of the Yang family's affairs, Tong Guan did not go through the court's discussion, nor did he have the emperor's verbal authorization to use troops privately, and almost forced the Yang family to rebel. And the compromise he supports is a traitor who is like a fake, and it is certain that this matter has something to do with him. This time, Zhao Chongyang was in the palace of the king of Western Xia, and he also found the agreement reached privately between Tong Guan and Li Chengqing, the king of Western Xia, more than ten years ago. The agreement said: During the period when Tong Guan was in charge of the Western Army, the two sides restrained the army and did not engage in large-scale military conflicts.

This agreement was also not negotiated by the court, let alone authorized by the emperor. Since this agreement, the performance of the Western Army in the past ten years has made sense. Prior to this, the two sides clashed, and the Western Army had the upper hand, at least to maintain a close match. It is estimated that Li Cunxun, the king of Jin in Western Xia at that time, saw that he could not please the Western Army, so he had a plan and tied up the Western Army's siblings with a paper agreement. The Tangut people lost, so they asked people to find Tong Guan with an agreement and ask the Western army to take the initiative to retreat. Because there was no major war for a long time, and Tong Guan did not give recognition to the generals after winning the war, over time, the generals were not active in fighting the war, and the training of the soldiers was also less, and the combat effectiveness naturally declined.

Li Chengxun and others of the Western Xia took the opportunity to vigorously prepare for war, and harassed on the border at any time. Every time the Western Army lost, Tong Guan came forward to negotiate peace and give the Tangut people some benefits, and the Tangut retreated.

Therefore, to put it a little bigger, Tong Guan is a foreign country, and he is a traitor like Zhe Keqiu, and it is not an exaggeration to sentence him to death. To put it mildly, he is raising the enemy for self-respect. Because every time the Western Army couldn't resist it, he came forward to clean up the mess, both face and merit, anyway, it was the country's money that was spent, and he didn't necessarily get a lot of kickbacks.

The Eighth Prince smiled: "This agreement alone may not be enough to bring down Tong Jie. Tong Guan has served as a privy envoy for nearly 20 years, and has not only installed countless cronies in the army, but also has his cronies in various departments of the DPRK and the Central Committee. He also colluded with Wang Hao, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, Yang Jian and others, which can be described as a big tree with deep roots. Even with Cai Jing, Gao Yu and others, as long as the conflict of interest is not large, they also support each other. You can try, if the emperor wants to move him, he will hint at Cai Jing and the others, but the emperor has not hinted, they will not chase after him. ”

Zhao Chongyang thought deeply of the words of the eighth prince, so he didn't have much hope now that he could completely bring down Tong Guan.

The eighth prince also told Zhao Chongyang that not long after he left Beijing, Uncle Zhang was in charge of Kaifeng Mansion at night, and Cai Jing originally wanted to make his son Cai Ying into the same governor of Kaifeng Mansion, so as to take over the power of Kaifeng Mansion smoothly, but who knew that Wang Huang and Tong Guan and others would lead an army. said that Cai Yan was about to marry the princess and become a concubine of the heavenly family. According to the ancestral system, the horse cannot hold real power, and can only hang some idle posts. Therefore, in the end, the Tongzhi of Kaifeng Mansion was obtained by Qin Hui, who was in the same department as Zhao Chongyang.

Qin Hui's wife, Wang's family, is a Jiangnan wang family, and Wang Huang recognized the same clan, and Qin Hui became his niece and son-in-law, so he wanted to make every effort to promote this matter.

Zhao Chongyang had already seen the information report of the beggar gang flying pigeon, but it was not so detailed. Zhao Chongyang knew that Qin Hui was a traitorous and evil person, with a deep city government and outstanding resourcefulness. If he gets together with Tong Guan, Wang Hao and others, there will be another undercurrent surging in the court.

Finally, Zhao Chongyang asked another question. It is rumored that three months ago, the gold lord Wanyan Aguta sent Lin Lingsu as an envoy to Tokyo to marry Emperor Maode for his fourth prince Jin Wushu. How was this matter handled?

The eighth prince said, and the official replied that the emperor had promised the son of Taishi Cai Jing, and he could choose another daughter of the clan to replace him.

Lin Lingsu passed on the words of the Golden Vultures: "Emperor Maode is the first beauty and princess of the Great Song Dynasty, and he Wanyan Zongbi is a rare beautiful man in Dajin, and he is the fourth prince of the Jin Kingdom, and they are equal in appearance and status to each other. Therefore, the two of them are a good match, and the others are not worthy of God. In the spring of next year, Jin Wushu will come to Tokyo in person, find someone to compete in both civil and military arts, if someone in the Great Song Dynasty beats him and promises to marry Emperor Maode, he will take the initiative to withdraw, if he does not promise to have a competition, let Emperor Maode marry, Jin will unite with the Great Liao to attack the Central Plains. ”

Therefore, the official family originally scheduled to hold a wedding for Cai Ying and Emperor Ji on August 16 was also banned. It's just that the official family did not issue an edict to ban the marriage contract between the two. But sooner or later, the two won't be able to be together.

Hearing this, Zhao Chongyang asked, "Why is this?" ”

The eighth prince said with a smile: "The conditions proposed by this golden vulture are naturally tailored for himself, and maybe Cai Yan doesn't dare to compare." In the martial arts competition, Cai learned literature. Comparing literature and art is not to compare the four books and five classics, but to compare the understanding of the art of war, what "Confucius's Art of War" and "Thirty-six Strategies" not only have to be memorized, but also have to lead the troops of both sides to personally compete. Not to mention that Cai Yan does not meet, even the whole Song Dynasty can't find a few people, let alone an unmarried man. ”

Zhao Binghua, the prince of the Eighth Prince, said to Zhao Chongyang: "I think that there is no second person in the Great Song Dynasty who dares to accept the challenge of the Golden Vulture except for you, the virtuous brother." By the way, maybe Tong Guan, Cai Jing and others will think of you when the time comes, and they will definitely let the official family pass on the decree to let you fight against the Golden Vulture Technique, so that you will become a concubine of the Heavenly Family, and you will never be able to threaten the status of any of them anymore. ”

Bawang said: "Your brother Wang reminded you right, in order to save the face of the Great Song Dynasty, if you are clicked on at that time, you really can't refuse." Otherwise, it would be a shame to say that our Great Song Dynasty can't even keep a princess. ”