Chapter 291 This is the last time
He was the emperor after all, and while Yelu Hongji asked softly, he gave people a feeling of majesty without anger and a smile.
It was very creepy, at least in Xiao Rongrong's opinion, underneath Yelu Hongji's expression was hidden extreme resentment and even murderous intent.
After all, they have been married for more than two years, and Xiao Rongrong still has some understanding of her husband.
Although she had the 'fairyland' in her hands and Master Lu seemed to be standing behind her, Xiao Rongrong still lowered her head and did not look him in the eye. At the same time, she said softly: "Your Majesty is the master of the human world, and this fairyland is not a place for humans. The human world is much bigger than this small resort."
Yelu Hongji raised his eyebrows and smiled happily, but his eyes looked a little strange: "The Queen means that you are no longer human?"
"Of course I don't dare to think so." Xiao Rongrong bowed, which in itself meant to give way and retreat and not compete with him: "I am just a lucky woman who happened to find a corner of the immortal family. To put it bluntly, I am just a gatekeeper."
"There is a saying in Song that the prime minister's doorman is a seventh-rank official." Yelu Hongji did not press Xiao Rongrong any further. He knew that forcing her too close would only backfire. "As the doorman of the fairyland, the queen is considered a non-human. After all, even I dare not do anything to you."
Xiao Rongrong's face turned pale instantly, and she crouched down, bending her head and waist.
Seeing Xiao Rongrong still as respectful as before, Yelu finally felt satisfied. He waved his hand and said, "Queen, there is no need to be like this. You and I are husband and wife, so why should we be so distant? It's getting late, so have a good rest."
After saying this, he walked straight outside without waiting for Xiao Rongrong to reply, and then left with the imperial guards and several eunuchs.
After leaving the Xiao Mansion, the people around saw the carriage leaving and immediately made way to the side.
Yelu Hongji sat in the car, lifted the curtain, looked at the street, and sighed.
As the rebels were approaching Linhuang, everyone in the city felt insecure and was unwilling to go out shopping, which even affected the tax revenue of the entire Linhuang city.
He looked for a while, and when he was about to lower the car window curtains, he unexpectedly saw a familiar figure passing by on the street.
"Is he Zhang Zaizhi's son?"
He squinted his eyes and thought for a while, then pulled open the curtains again and said to the eunuch next to him, "Follow the kid from Zhang Zaizhi's family quietly and see what he is going to do. Also, check where he has been recently. I remember that he seems to have not made any noise in the capital for a while."
No matter when, the children of these high-ranking officials and nobles would "fight" every day in the capital.
There was chaos all the time.
The eunuch bowed and accepted the order and left.
On this side, Zhang Qihan bent and bowed on the side of the street. After the carriage had gone far away, he and other people stood up straight.
Outside Khitan, he was called Zhang Zongzhen, and in Khitan's Linhuang City, he was called Zhang Qihan.
He heaved a sigh of relief and walked towards the Xiao Mansion, completely unaware that there was a tail behind him.
He entered the Xiao Mansion, bowed outside the System Home, clasped his fists and said, "Zhang family boy, I want to see the Queen."
After a while, Xiao Rongrong walked out of the cabin, wearing a thin shirt that was very close to her body, revealing her curves.
Zhang Qihan was moved, but he immediately lowered his head and said, "I have lived up to your trust and delivered the letter to Master Lu. Master Lu then wrote another letter and asked me to take it to the queen."
Xiao Rongrong was a little surprised. Lu Sen wrote a letter to her?
She wrote a letter to Lu Sen just to express her gratitude. If it weren't for this fairyland, she would have died long ago.
In her opinion, Lu Sen was a very good person, and all the women around him were real fairies. She probably got his protection because she looked similar to one of the fairies.
So she never expected Lu Sen to "write back" to her.
However, now Zhang Qihan said that Master Lu had written back to him!
Looking at the small box handed over, Xiao Rongrong took it solemnly, and then she said to Zhang Qihan: "Thank you, Master Zhang, for delivering the message. If you need to visit me in the future, please let me know."
"How dare I?" Zhang Qihan was waiting for this sentence. He clasped his fists and said with a smile, "I will leave first. I wish your Majesty eternal youth and a long life."
After saying that, Zhang Qihan left the Xiao Mansion.
After he walked out of the gate of the Xiao Mansion, a eunuch came out from the darkness and paced into the palace.
About an incense stick later, in the imperial study of the palace, Yelu Hongji's face became gloomy.
After listening to his father-in-law's report, he was extremely angry.
He suppressed his anger and waved his hand to send his father-in-law away. After the door was closed, his expression finally became distorted.
The wooden pen body held in his right hand was broken by his force.
"This is truly my good queen. She actually took the initiative to hook up with a man outside."
But then, his expression gradually returned to normal, except that there was a little more aggrieved in his eyes.
He sat at the desk and thought for a long time. Finally, he called the eunuch in and said, "You must find a way to convey to the Queen without leaving any trace. No matter what happened between him and Master Lu, I will not see it and will not intervene. But Master Lu must spit out something substantial to compensate the palace. Do you understand?"
The eunuch retreated sweating profusely. This was a royal secret. If someone like him knew about it, how many days could he live?
Lu Sen didn't know what happened in Jianhuang City. He was looking at the information in his hand and smiling happily.
The Baima Qiangzhen Army was annihilated by Di Qing and Mu Guiying, and a large number of Western Xia soldiers, as well as a large amount of military supplies and war horses were captured.
Supplies were not a big deal, as the Northern Song Dynasty was very rich and there was never a shortage of military equipment and supplies.
But this war horse is extremely rare.
Although Di Qing's personal guard was composed entirely of cavalry, its number barely exceeded a thousand.
As for Mu Guiying's side, except for a small number of her generals and two hundred reconnaissance light cavalry, the rest were all infantry.
The Northern Song Dynasty was short of horses to this extent.
Now at least tens of thousands of war horses have been seized. More importantly, the troops and horses of the Baima strong town have been wiped out. Even if the Helan Mountains truly fall into the hands of the Song people, there will be no more threats around.
Lu Sen was the first person to know the news because Yang Jinhua rushed over in a flying vehicle to report it.
The troops of Baima Town were destroyed, and Lu Sen suddenly felt relieved.
At this point in time, history has undergone real and visible changes.
The next step was to find a way to recuperate for a period of time, and then attack northwest from Xingqing Prefecture, directly capture Xuanhua Prefecture, and completely destroy the Western Xia regime.
As long as Western Xia was destroyed, Khitan, a country that had already been half-Sinicized, would not be a match for the Northern Song Dynasty.
In fact, the Northern Song Dynasty has always been capable of dealing with the Khitan, but the Western Xia was causing trouble nearby. Once the Northern Song Dynasty attacked the Khitan, the Western Xia would send troops to attack Xi'an.
If the Northern Song Dynasty attacked the Western Xia, the Khitan army would invade the border, which would be extremely troublesome.
But the situation is different now. The Khitan is divided internally, and the Western Xia has been broken. From then on, the pressure shifted from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Western Xia and Khitan.
A day later, the news spread in Dingzhou. Lu Huiqing was overjoyed and drafted a memorial to be sent directly to Tokyo.
About four days later, the officials in the court of Bianliang City were discussing the matter.
The young official blinked his lively eyes, looking at the civil officials quarreling below, feeling a little at a loss.
No one came out to stop it.
Both Bao Zheng and Master Pang stayed quietly among the crowd.
After waiting for nearly half an hour, Empress Dowager Cao spoke from behind the curtain: "All the nobles, please be quiet."
The noise gradually stopped.
Through the white beaded curtain, Queen Mother Cao asked, "Master Lu has recovered our Han homeland in Western Xia, and good news has come one after another. Why don't the nobles show any joy, but instead argue endlessly?"
She was just talking nonsense with her eyes open. In fact, she knew exactly why the civil officials were arguing.
But she just didn't say it.
The civil officials knew in their hearts that the Queen Mother understood, but she was playing dumb and there was nothing they could do.
Finally, a famous official stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the officials are worried that if Master Lu continues to fight like this, the Xixia Kingdom may have to change its surname to Lu."
Hearing this, Bao Zheng and Master Pang both sighed subconsciously.
This was what they were most worried about, but they didn't expect it to happen.
Queen Mother Cao pretended to be stupid and asked, "Isn't Master Lu doing well in Xixia? Why are you worried that Xixia will have the surname Lu?"
All the officials in the court couldn't help but .
Queen Mother Cao was taking revenge on them for not allowing her to hold power in the court.
Now people don't care anymore and just pretend that they know nothing, and even mock the officials in a sarcastic way.
But all officials have to bear it.
Finally, the young censor Mo Shaocong also stood up and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the matter of Master Lu has indeed reached a dangerous level. If Master Lu is allowed to recover the lost land of the Han family, from now , the northwest will only know Master Lu, but not the court."
"Is there such a thing?" Empress Dowager Cao's voice was actually quite sweet unless she was deliberately pretending to be majestic. "In fact, it would be a good idea for you to call Master Lu back. Princess Fukang in the palace has reached the age to get married. I think Master Lu is very good and I would like to grant him marriage. I wonder what the nobles think?"
What's your opinion on this?
Whatever you like!
As long as Empress Dowager Cao does not interfere in politics, everything will be easy to deal with.
This is the royal family's private matter and they have no right to interfere.
Moreover, if Princess Fukang could really marry Lu Sen, then at least the Zhao family's kingdom would be more stable.
Seeing that no one in the court objected, Empress Dowager Cao continued, "Then I will draft an edict to summon Master Lu back to the capital, okay?"
Good, good, good!
Naturally good!
The reason why the civil officials had quarreled just now was very simple. Some people thought that Master Lu should be recalled. Xixia had been beaten into a loser, and any other inferior general could have won the battle.
Lu Sen's prestige is already too high both among the people and in the northwest.
If there really is rebellion... then things will be troublesome.
Another group of people believe that Master Lu is different from ordinary generals in that he does not have worldly desires.
If he really wanted to sit on the throne, he would have done it long ago, and the court would have been unable to do anything to him.
But the opponents said that there was no one in this world who was not interested in the dragon throne, and the reason why Master Lu did not sit on it was because the time was not right, etc.
Anyway, the two sides quarreled quite fiercely.
Neither Master Pang nor Bao Zheng said anything. It would not have made much sense if they had said anything at this time.
The prestige of both of them is indeed very high, but in such a major event involving the country and the people, no matter how high their prestige is, no matter how much they want to help Lu Sen, not many people will be willing to agree.
The quarrel lasted from morning till evening, until both sides were exhausted.
The young official sat on the dragon throne, feeling hungry and aggrieved.
Empress Cao was more comfortable. She hid behind the curtain and could eat snacks without being seen.
She looked at the depressed ministers below and said with a smile, "My dear ministers, how about this? Let's not take away Master Lu's position as military supervisor and military power for now. Let's draft an imperial decree to invite him back, let him rest for a few days, meet with Princess Fukang, and see if they can become a couple. What do you think?"
National affairs and expanding territory meant nothing to Empress Dowager Cao.
What she values most now is nothing more than the peaches produced by Master Lu's family.
If Master Pang can eat it, and Prince Runan can eat it, then after I become her mother-in-law, I will definitely be able to eat it too.
So what she was thinking about in her mind was Princess Fukang's marriage and her future peach.
Many people in the court could see clearly what Empress Dowager Cao was thinking.
But it doesn’t matter. Although the starting points are different, the results are the same. They all want Lu Sen to return to the capital.
However, when the document sent by the Secretariat arrived in front of Lu Sen, he only glanced at it, threw it on the ground, and said to the messenger: "Go back and tell all the ministers of the Secretariat, tell all the officials in the court, tell the emperor and Empress Cao not to play such tricks in front of me. I know their intentions, they are just trying to trick me into returning to the capital."
The messenger from the post station sent by the Zhongshumen smiled droolingly and did not dare to speak.
Lu Sen continued, "You are just afraid that I will start a mutiny at Chenqiao, so just tell me the truth. Before I came to Xixia, it was agreed that I would have full control over diplomatic affairs with Xixia, so I came here to help. I have had enough of you guys going back on your word again and again, this is the last time, if there are any more documents or urgent gold medals like this, I will not only not return to the capital, but will immediately turn to Khitan."
The messenger from the Secretariat was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he picked up the document and ran away.
Lu Huiqing also turned pale, and after a while he finally recovered his breath and exclaimed, " Master Lu, you are going to break the sky."
"Is this what you call exposing the sky?" Lu Sen sneered, "You civil servants are like this, bullying the weak and fearing the strong. If there really is a rebellion, you will be more anxious than anyone else."
Lu Huiqing stopped talking immediately because he felt like Lu Sen had stabbed him in the heart with his words.
Yang Jinhua was standing by, helping Lu Sen peel the fruit, and she was not surprised at all.
She knew very well what kind of personality her husband had.
I wouldn't dare say he has a bad temper, but he is the typical person who can't tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. The court does things in a decent manner, so it is normal for officials to be angry.
A few days later, the frightened messenger returned to the capital and reviewed Lu Sen's words.
First the entire court was frightened, then the news leaked, and the whole world was shocked by Lu Sen's words.
In the streets and alleys, in the brothels and taverns, everyone talked about it and no one cared about it.
Even Yelu Hongji of Khitan received the news.
