The Bad Guys: Playing the Fake Li Xingyun at the Beginning

She is the Khitan princess, Yelu Zhiwu.

The pigtails fluttered in the air, leaving a trail of laughter in the courtyard. A maid stood next to the swing, her face was bitter, her eyebrows knitted together, "Princess, this is not good, is it?"

"Zhuoma, what's wrong with that? This princess is too lazy to deal with Tang officials. It's so annoying." Yelu Zhiwu swung his calves, looking very comfortable.

"Princess, it would be fine if you had someone pretend to be you to meet guests in other places, but this is Luoyang. What if someone finds out?" The maid lamented with an even more worried look on her face.

Yelu Zhiwu said nonchalantly, "They have discovered it, so what? Do they dare to say anything?"

Since she set foot in the Central Plains, many people along the way have tried to establish a relationship with her and make friends with the Khitan. At the beginning, Yelu Zhiwu was very patient in meeting them.

Later, more and more people came, and Yelu Zhiwu could not understand some of what they said. Soon she became fed up with it, so she asked the personal maid sent by her mother to pretend to be her and meet people on her behalf.

Anyway, when she met with foreign guests, she always did so through a screen. People who were not of a certain level were not qualified to see her. Only the governors who held great power in the local area and had considerable military authority were qualified to see her.

This was not decided by her, but was selected by the Khitan officials of the delegation.

A large part of the Khitan wedding team will stay in the Central Plains as dowry, and only a few will return to the royal court in Mobei to report. These people are tasked with spying on the Central Plains.

If not, the wedding procession would not have met so frequently with local forces.

After that, Yelu Zhiwu's world became quiet.

On the roof not far away, Su Ming and Zhang Zifan looked at each other in surprise. They didn't expect that they had accidentally come here and actually saw the real Khitan princess.

It turns out that those who dealt with the court in the past were all impostors.

On the other hand, Zhang Zifan opened his mouth wide, stared with his eyes, and his face looked extremely ugly, like the bottom of a pot. He could never have imagined that the Khitan princess was so beautiful!

They originally planned to sneak into the post house and meet the Khitan princess, but the front was heavily guarded and they could not see anyone without alerting the guards, so they sneaked into the backyard, but they heard the following conversation, which led to the current scene.

Zhang Zifan turned his head with difficulty and looked at Su Ming, his eyes full of resentment and jealousy.

I am so stupid. I only knew that the most beautiful girls were not good-looking, but I forgot that Yelu Abaoji and Queen Yingtian were both outstanding people, one was heroic and domineering, and the other was graceful and elegant.

With parents like this, how could the daughter born to them be ugly?

My luck must be too bad. I actually happened to meet two sisters with such extraordinary talents.

At this moment, Zhang Zifan became autistic.

"Crack!"

Su Ming seemed to hear the sound of a broken heart and looked at him puzzledly, as if asking, what's wrong with you?

Seeing his puzzled expression, Zhang Zifan gritted his teeth. He couldn't say that he came here with you today just to laugh at you.

It turns out that the clown was actually me!

Both are Khitan princesses, both were forced, so why is mine so excellent, why are you so beautiful? In his opinion, you are even prettier than Lu Linxuan. That kind of holiness and innocence, with a bit of mystery, makes him feel as if he has seen a goddess.

Yelu Zhiwu was originally a shaman saint on the grassland. She served as a priestess for a long time and helped Yelu Abaoji unite his people. Over a long period of time, she developed a mysterious religious atmosphere.

As a contemporary Heavenly Master, Zhang Zifan was naturally familiar with this kind of aura and could see it at a glance, but it was precisely because he could see it that he felt envious, jealous and hateful.

The long sky, how can you treat me less favorably?

The purpose of coming here was accidentally achieved, and the two did not stay any longer. They turned around and left. Just as they disappeared, Yelu Zhiwu seemed to sense something and turned to look in the direction they left with a puzzled look.

"Princess, what's wrong?"

Yelu Zhiwu shook her head and looked away, "I felt like someone was looking at me just now."

The maid was startled and asked quickly, "Princess, should we notify the guards?"

"No need, he should have left."

……

On the way back to the palace, Zhang Zifan had a cold face and said nothing.

Su Ming had a smile on his face, as if he didn't see the gloomy expression, "Brother Zhang, this Khitan princess is quite interesting. She doesn't want to greet the officials herself, so she asked someone to impersonate her."

Zhang Zifan said sourly, "She is a Khitan princess, just an official, it's not worth it for her to come in person."

Su Ming nodded and explained, "However, from this it seems that she is not a bad person. She would rather hide than lose her temper or deliberately find fault."

He had long known that Yelu Zhiwu was good-looking, so he was naturally happy about the marriage.

I didn't agree before because the timing was not right.

But now that Yelu Abaoji has taken the initiative to propose marriage, what else can he say? He can only accept it directly.

And today, when he saw Yelu Zhiwu with his own eyes, he finally understood what the Pearl of the grassland was. She had that innocent girlish air, and the free and easy nature brought by the grassland, just like an elf.

Compared with the empress, they are like bamboo, orchid and autumn chrysanthemum, each has its own strengths and are equally matched.

Hearing Su Ming's praise, Zhang Zifan said faintly, "Brother Li, you really made a fortune."

Su Ming glanced at him and said with a wicked smile, "Didn't you make a lot of money? I only have one, but you have two, one dragon and two phoenixes, this is double the happiness, others can't even ask for it."

It's hard, the fist is hard.

This sentence immediately broke down Zhang Zifan's defense.

He glared at me and said angrily, "People are different. How can we compare them? Don't take advantage of me and act like a good kid."

He originally wanted to make fun of Su Ming today, but in the end he was the one who got hurt.

Thinking about his own beautiful and charming daughter, and then thinking about the innocent, beautiful and lovely Yelu Zhiwu, Zhang Zifan felt sick.

The gap between people is really too big.

"Okay, I won't tease you anymore. I've already told you that no matter whether Yelu Zhiwu is ugly or beautiful, I have to accept her. There is no way to change it. If she is beautiful, I'm naturally happy. If she is ugly, what can I do?"

"In fact, you and I are the same. There are really many helplessness in life." Su Ming said with a deep sigh.

Suddenly, Zhang Zifan wanted to curse loudly, but after opening his mouth, he gave up. This guy deserves to die. I also want to feel helpless like this!

Chapter 148 Meeting with Khitan Envoys

After that, Zhang Zifan had a sullen face for two days and was not in a good mood when he met anyone. Even Lu Linxuan was surprised. When he asked him about it, he hesitated and refused to say anything.

It wasn't until Xu Huan caught him and scolded him that he returned to normal.

But all this had nothing to do with Su Ming. He lit the fire and ran away, too lazy to put it out. After the imperial examination, the court focused on preparing for the selection of concubines.

These matters were not his responsibility, so he simply threw them all to King Qi for review and disposal. He only handled court affairs, reviewed memorials, and went to the military camp to inspect the imperial guards every few days.

After Zhang Zifan left, Su Ming did not appoint a lieutenant general of the imperial guards. Instead, he promoted several deputy generals and divided the five thousand imperial guards into ten battalions, with five hundred people in each battalion.

Every time he went there, he would set a good jackpot and hold a martial arts competition. Those with excellent results would be rewarded with money and food, while the camp at the bottom of the ranking would be punished and their salary would be halved.

Under such a competitive mechanism, the imperial guards were trained very quickly. With the one thousand veteran soldiers sent by the empress from the State of Qi as their foundation, they quickly formed combat effectiveness by training the new soldiers with the old ones, and they performed in good order when performing martial arts performances.

Although Su Ming was not familiar with military formations, he knew martial arts. He could tell at a glance who was using all their strength, who was slacking off, and who was pretending to be playing. The imperial guards were treated very well and had sufficient money and food.

In addition, when he formed the Imperial Guards, he issued a military order that anyone who drew a salary without doing anything would be punished by death. After that, he killed several squad leaders in succession, and no one dared to draw a salary without doing anything anymore.

Since ancient times, the army has had the bad habit of collecting empty salaries, and it is impossible to completely ban it. Su Ming can only use laws to stop this behavior to the greatest extent possible.

The salary was in full, and Su Ming secretly spread the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor. Every month when the salary was distributed, Su Ming would be present to let them know whose food they were eating and whose money they were receiving.

With the precedent of Emperor Zhaozong, Su Ming would not be foolish enough to hand over his soldiers to others, even the people he trusted the most.

……

Three days after the Khitans entered the city, they formally submitted a letter to the court, requesting an audience with the emperor.

The official from the Ministry of Rites did not dare to delay. After receiving the letter, he immediately went to the palace and handed it to Su Ming.

The next day, the sky was clear and the weather was sunny.

The grand court meeting was held as scheduled in the Taiji Hall. All officials put on neat court robes, crossed the imperial road, and entered the hall one after another. With the sound of melodious bells and chimes, the court meeting began.

Su Ming did not wear the usual bright yellow dragon robe, but a black twelve-chapter crown and a flat crown on his head. The wide crown did not make him look thin. On the contrary, his strong body held up the robe, making him look heroic, solemn and majestic.

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

"My dears, please stand up."

After a brief greeting, the Minister of Rites Feng Dao did not waste time and went straight to the point. In fact, receiving the Khitan envoys should have been the responsibility of the Minister of Rites Yan Suchen.

But he was too old and devoted all his attention to compiling and writing history books. Since the establishment of the History Museum, he had been staying there with the new scholars and rarely participated in other miscellaneous matters.

Fortunately, he did not disappoint Su Ming. Before devoting himself to writing history books, he recommended a new Minister of Rites, Feng Dao, to the court.

Feng Dao is a very famous person in history. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, he served in four dynasties and ten emperors, and was known in history as the "Veteran of Ten Dynasties."

This man was born into a family of farmers and scholars. When he was young, he had a good character, was diligent and studious, was good at writing, and was able to live in poverty. He can be said to be a typical Confucian scholar with a good character.

Apart from taking care of his parents, he only enjoyed reading. Even when the door was blocked by snow and the mat was covered with dust and dirt, he could remain calm and unmoved by external things. Later, he became famous and was recruited by the Jiedushi of Youzhou.

Before Su Ming ascended the throne, he had just completed his mourning period and was recalled by the court to be appointed as a Hanlin scholar. Su Ming would naturally not ignore such a talent, but he had never had the opportunity to make use of him before.

At that time, Su Ming had not yet established a firm foothold in the court. If he were to force him to be employed, he would instead become a victim of party struggles. Therefore, he had been holding back his thoughts until now.

He wanted to see what kind of talents a "tumbler" who had survived several changes of dynasties and remained firmly established in the court had.

Feng Dao had a good reputation among court officials, and Yan Suchen's recommendation was quickly approved by the Ministry of Personnel. After the recommendation was approved, Yan Suchen wanted to resign, but was stopped by Su Ming. Not only did he not let him resign, he also appointed him as the Grand Secretary of the Hongwenguan in the Jixian Hall, and granted him the title of Shangshu Zuo Pushe.

Yan Suchen was an old minister in the court and had an outstanding reputation in the literary world. Conferring a title on him was undoubtedly an attempt to win over the civil and military officials in the court.

Some things are not done for yourself, but for others to see.

Sure enough, the first thing Feng Dao did after taking office was to receive the Khitan envoys. Under his command, the Khitans did not cause any trouble in Luoyang.

"Your Majesty, the Khitan envoy has arrived in Luoyang and is waiting in front of the palace gate." Feng Dao held the tablet and reported in a proper and polite manner.

"Summon them to court."

After Su Ming finished speaking, the eunuch who was waiting on the side stepped forward and shouted, "Summon the Khitan envoy to the throne!"

A moment later, the Khitan envoy stepped into the Taiji Hall.

As soon as they entered the palace, they were stunned by its magnificence. When had they ever seen such a magnificent and huge building? Even though he had seen a lot along the way, he had never encountered a palace more splendid, solemn and majestic than this one.

Compared with the imperial city of Luoyang, the royal court of their Khitan emperor in Mobei seemed like something built by a country bumpkin, extremely rough. Not until they came to their senses did they understand why the king was so eager to go south.

It turns out that the Central Plains is so rich!

Suppressing the throbbing in his heart, the leading envoy leaned forward and said, "Barta, the envoy of the Khitan Kingdom, pays respect to His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty."

"Please stand up."

Balta stood up, took out a letter from his arms, and held it high above his head. "Your Majesty, this is a handwritten letter from my king to your Majesty. Please take a look."

The letter that Yelu Abaoji wrote to himself?