I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 410: Fierce as a tiger in internal fighting, cowardly as a dog in external fighting

Because the Liao army was defeated by the Song army led by Zhao Wei and suffered heavy losses, although the Liao Kingdom was angry, it had to agree to the peace talks of the Song Dynasty.

As a result, both sides sent negotiators and started negotiations on the northern border.

However, negotiations cannot be successful overnight. Both sides have made sufficient preparations. To be precise, it is the Song Dynasty that has made sufficient preparations, while the Liao Kingdom is only putting forward conditions.

Then a very magical situation occurred. The Song Dynasty was obviously the victorious party this time, but during the negotiations it became the weaker party. Not only did it not gain any advantage, but it was pressed step by step by the Liao Kingdom.

What is even more bizarre is that in the face of the Liao people's relentless pressure, the Song Dynasty was actually compromising step by step. Except for being unwilling to cede territory and cities, they were willing to agree to all other conditions and agreed to increase various annual tributes.

This was not a peace talk at all, but rather the Song Dynasty's unilateral attempt to provide warmth to the Liao people.

Zhao Wei had been sending people to keep an eye on the peace talks between the two countries. When he learned about the process and conditions of the talks, he was also stunned.

I have to say that reality is sometimes even more exaggerated than one can imagine. The victorious party paying compensation to the defeated party is a very shocking existence no matter in which era.

"Oh, if you want to negotiate, you have to ask me if I agree."

Zhao Wei sneered. He would never sit idly by and watch the peace talks between Song and Liao succeed. After all, if the peace talks between the two countries succeeded, what would happen to his system tasks, let alone such a humiliating peace talk.

"Marshal, can we start now?" Li Junxin asked with a smile.

Zhao Wei nodded: "Let them do it."

So, just when the negotiations between Liao and Song were about to succeed, suddenly a shocking news came, instantly interrupting the negotiations between the two sides.

It turned out that news came from the front line that tens of thousands of Liao soldiers captured by the Song Dynasty suddenly started a riot in the military camp, killed many Song soldiers who were guarding them, and planned to escape.

More importantly, the King of Han of the Song Dynasty and the commander of the Song army, Zhao Wei, was assassinated and injured by the Liao people. His generals were furious and killed the Liao captives and built a Jingguan on the northern border.

With such an incident happening at the critical moment of the peace talks, the peace talks naturally could no longer continue. The Liao side became furious, clamoring for the Song Dynasty to pay a price, etc., and then left angrily and returned to the Liao Kingdom.

When the news reached Kyoto, the government and the public were shocked.

The peace talks were about to succeed, and many court officials had gradually put their minds at ease. However, this incident suddenly happened, causing many of them to feel relieved again.

Originally, they did not want to fight, and did not want to see the military generals of the Song Dynasty rise up and snatch away their voice in the court. However, this prisoner riot directly disrupted the peace talks between the Song and Liao sides, and according to the Liao people, this war was inevitable.

Zhao Wei's plan was not brilliant. Anyone in the court could see that Zhao Wei did it on purpose. After all, everyone more or less knew how powerful Zhao Wei was. If he had been stabbed and injured by Liao prisoners in the Song army camp, Zhao Wei would have died on the battlefield long ago.

Therefore, some civil servants who were already dissatisfied with Zhao Wei directly attacked the Prince of Han's Mansion in the court, making all kinds of criticisms, as if Zhao Wei was not a meritorious official who defended the country, but an unforgivable sinner.

The military generals and officials who supported Zhao Wei were naturally unwilling to be outdone. They all made excuses for Zhao Wei and supported going to war, proposing that Zhao Wei continue to lead the army to counterattack the Liao Kingdom and recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

The two sides quarreled fiercely, and the court meeting turned into a quarrel in the vegetable market.

Zhao Heng is different from he was in previous years. He now supports Zhao Wei. As Zhao Wei destroyed the Dingnan Army and defeated the Liao Army, the Song Army became more and more powerful, which made him see the possibility of recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Even if he could not recover all of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, as long as he could recover half of them, he would be the first monarch in the history of the Song Dynasty.

Moreover, Zhao Wei was his biological son. Even though Zhao Wei's military power was growing stronger and his reputation among the people was getting higher, Zhao Heng was not worried at all about the scene of him wearing the yellow robe.

More importantly, the Liao Kingdom had already said that it would not negotiate and was clearly going to war with the Song Dynasty. He couldn't just hand his son over to the Liao Kingdom to appease its anger, right? Would he still be able to save his reputation as the Emperor of the Song Dynasty?

If this were really done, Zhao Heng dared to swear that with his son's temper, he would definitely lead his troops back to the capital to purge the court. So even though Zhao Heng knew that the so-called riot of Liao army prisoners was planned by Zhao Wei, he had to support Zhao Wei.

Zhao Pan'er didn't care about what was happening in the court. She only knew that Zhao Wei was assassinated and injured, and she was immediately panicked. She couldn't wait for new news to come, so she just discussed with Zhao Huai'en and others, and then took her people to the border.

Song Dynasty, the first year of Qianxing, autumn.

It was already late at night, and there were only a few soldiers patrolling the Song army camp.

Zhao Pan'er stood at the door of the tent, looking quietly at the gate of the military camp.

Soon, the sound of iron hooves was heard in the night fog, and as the sound got closer and closer, she saw the familiar figure she had been thinking about day and night.

"Your Highness."

Zhao Paner shouted loudly and ran straight to the gate of the military camp.

Zhao Wei reined in his horse, jumped off, hugged Zhao Pan'er who was running towards him, and asked, "When did you arrive?"

Zhao Wei naturally knew that Zhao Pan'er had left Beijing to come here, but he did not expect that Zhao Pan'er would come so quickly, much faster than he expected.

Zhao Pan'er checked Zhao Wei's body from head to toe, her face full of worry: "I arrived this morning. I heard that Your Highness was injured in an assassination attempt. Is it serious?"

"I'm sorry for making you worry." Zhao Wei squeezed Zhao Pan'er's hand in comfort. "I'm not seriously injured. The so-called injury was just a show for the public. I was afraid that you would worry, so I sent someone to send you a message. Didn't you see it?"

The riot of Liao prisoners of war was just an excuse to the outside world. It was impossible for him to be hurt by the Liao people. The injuries on his body were all from the previous battle with the Liao people, and they are almost healed.

Zhao Pan'er was not reassured by Zhao Wei's words. She noticed the white gauze wrapped around Zhao Wei's body. Her eyes were sore and she said distressedly, "You are injured so badly, and you still say you are fine. Why don't you just take a rest? What if your injury gets worse?"

Zhao Wei wiped away the tears from Zhao Pan'er's eyes with pity, and said in a deep voice: "The Liao people have made some moves recently, I have to go and see it in person to feel at ease, but don't worry, this injury is nothing, I know it well."

"Are the Liao people difficult to deal with?"

A hint of solemnity flashed across Zhao Wei's eyes, but he still pretended to be relaxed and said, "It's not that difficult, I'm just a little tired and a little hungry."

"It's so late, you haven't eaten yet?"

It would have been better if Zhao Pan'er didn't ask. After asking, Zhao Wei really felt extremely hungry.

"Not really."

"Then I'll make it for you." Zhao Pan'er said and was about to go to the kitchen.

"Madam, there are so many of us. You can just cook for the Marshal. We will get food for ourselves. You don't have to worry about it."

After hearing Li Junxin speak, Zhao Wei introduced him to Zhao Paner and then took Zhao Paner to the kitchen.

Zhao Pan'er asked Zhao Wei to rest at the table while she started to work.

"It's late now, so just make do with it. Just wait a moment, I'll be there soon."

Under the light, Zhao Wei sat quietly in the empty kitchen. It was extremely quiet, with only Zhao Pan'er busying around not far away and the slight sound of the knife hitting the chopping board. For a moment, Zhao Wei felt extremely comfortable and his eyes slowly closed.

"Wow wow..."

A baby's cry suddenly sounded outside the kitchen, waking up Zhao Wei who had just fallen asleep. Then he saw Xiu Yin walking in from outside holding the little guy Zhao Ye.

Zhao Paner hurried over to take the little guy and started to coax him, but unfortunately the little guy didn't give her any face and continued to cry.

"Let me do it."

Zhao Wei took his son in his arms. The little guy was stunned at first, and then he started laughing.

"The little prince and His Highness really have a deep father-son relationship, and they are connected by blood. He stopped crying as soon as His Highness held him in his arms."

Xiuyin said with a smile that she had served Zhao Wei for more than twenty years and had long regarded the Prince of Han's Mansion as her own home. Now seeing the deep affection between Zhao Wei and Zhao Ye, she was happy from the bottom of her heart.

"You little rascal, I take care of you every day, and you just met your father and you're already kissing him." Zhao Pan'er smiled and slapped her son's butt, then went back to busying herself with cooking.

Zhao Wei held his son in his arms, lifted him up high, and swung him on the swing, making the little guy giggle.

"This is called blood connection. Our brother Ye is smart and knows that I am his father."

"You are the only one who would say that. He is such a young child, what does he know?" Zhao Pan'er turned her head and rolled her eyes, but her heart was filled with sweetness.

"You don't know this, right? Children are the most intelligent. They can sense when someone is kind to them."

Zhao Pan'er was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it carefully, what Zhao Wei said seemed to be true. Every time she brought her son into the palace, her son had no aversion to anyone except Concubine Li Chenfei and Concubine Gao, and was unwilling to be held by them at all.

Zhao Wei naturally didn't know about this. He coaxed the child to sleep after a while. Zhao Ye is only a few months old now and is at the age when he can sleep. He spends most of the day sleeping.

After handing the child to Xiuyin, Zhao Paner also came over with food.

Zhao Pan'er handed Zhao Wei a spoon and introduced: "Hu La Tang, there's not much here, just some flour and leftover mutton soup, I added some vinegar and pepper, and made a thick bowl for you."

"You're from Jiangnan, and you know how to make spicy soup?" Zhao Wei was a little surprised. He took a sip tentatively, and his appetite was instantly aroused. He gobbled it up in big mouthfuls.

Zhao Pan'er happily watched Zhao Wei eat and explained, "My father used to go on patrol and my mother would always make this when he came home, so I learned a little bit from her."

Zhao Wei savored the taste of the spicy soup and said contentedly, "Not bad, but there's too much pepper."

Zhao Pan'er smiled when she heard this: "Pepper is expensive. I asked the merchants to bring it from Guangzhou to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo to here. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be willing to add so much. How does it taste? Don't say it's not delicious."

Zhao Wei licked his lips and praised, "It tastes good. My whole body feels warm all of a sudden."

Zhao Pan'er said happily: "You're not praising me in the right way. It's only the beginning of autumn, how cold can it be?"

Zhao Wei smiled slightly: "The warmth I'm talking about is different from the warmth you're talking about. I'm talking about warmth in my heart. You have to cook for me often in the future."

Zhao Pan'er smiled and said, "My cooking is not even as good as Sanniang's, let alone the imperial chef in the palace."

Zhao Wei smiled and shook his head. He reached out his hand to Zhao Pan'er, letting her sit on his lap. He said gently, "Pan'er, it is my blessing to marry you. I am sorry that you have suffered during my absence from the capital. I was not with you when you were pregnant and gave birth. I am sorry."

After all, Zhao Wei is a modern person who traveled through time. Although he has experienced the baptism of the feudal dynasty, his thoughts are still very different from this era.

In this feudal dynasty, in a family, men are the sweetest, and women always serve men. It is basically impossible to see men serving women. Even if there are such cases, they are rare.

Although Zhao Wei was not by her side when she was pregnant and giving birth, he wrote a letter to her and explained many things about the care and protection of pregnant women. It can be said that he considered every aspect very carefully. This alone is more than many men, which made Zhao Pan'er very grateful and her love and attachment to Zhao Wei even stronger.

Hearing what Zhao Wei said, Zhao Pan'er, who was leaning on his arms, shook her head and said, "Your Highness, you are doing this for the sake of family and country. I can understand that, and I am not tired either. It was me who not only failed to serve Your Highness well, but also came to the border to cause trouble for Your Highness."

In fact, she knew very well that it was inappropriate for a woman like her to come to the border with her son, but when she thought of Zhao Wei being injured, she couldn't help it.

"What trouble is it? You and I are husband and wife. I am so happy that you came to see me despite the danger. Besides, I missed you too... hehe..."

Zhao Wei chuckled, picked up Zhao Pan'er, and strode towards the tent.

This night is destined to be a sleepless night...

As expected, Zhao Paner got up late the next day.

When she woke up, Zhao Wei was already discussing matters with his subordinates.

With the arrival of Zhao Pan'er, the news from the court also spread to the border.

When he was studying history, Zhao Wei knew that the Song Dynasty was very weak, but that was history after all, and he didn't have any real feelings about it.

But now, after experiencing it personally, he finally understood that beneath the Song Dynasty's bright and shining appearance was a corrupt and weak body. The entire Song Dynasty was a dynasty that was a mess inside.

Not to mention the Tang and Han dynasties, even compared to the short-lived Sui Dynasty, it was not even a little bit inferior.

It was obvious that the Song Dynasty had won the battle, but those civil servants actually wanted to pay compensation and seek peace. Paying compensation and seeking peace would have been one thing, but what was even worse was that they actually wanted to hold him accountable and asked Zhao Heng to hand him over to the Liao people in order to seek their forgiveness.

It's totally off the mark.

He is really as fierce as a tiger in internal fighting, but as cowardly as a dog when fighting against others.

Fortunately, Zhao Heng still has a bottom line.

Not only did he not agree to the peace-seeking petitions, he also arrested a group of people to serve as a warning to others, and at the same time mobilized 200,000 troops to support the border. This was the first time he clearly supported Zhao Wei's war against the Liao people.

Zhao Wei currently does not have the time or energy to deal with those peace-seeking factions in the court. His main focus now is on the Liao people.

He had planned the fight against Dingnan Army before, and had been planning it since he first arrived in the northwest. This had been going on for several years, and finally he was able to destroy the Dingnan Army in one fell swoop, causing Western Xia to disappear into history before it was even established.

Compared with the Dingnan Army in Xiazhou, the Liao Kingdom is completely different.

The Liao Dynasty's military strength was much stronger than that of the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty had a large population and a vast territory, it had hardly ever won a battle against the Liao Dynasty.

The Liao people are definitely the hardest nut to crack right now.

(End of this chapter)