Heungju, in the morning.

In front of the temporary yamen of Liu Heng, the deputy envoy of the Great Song Dynasty and the minister of the Qin Mission, a team of personnel in Western Xia costumes was standing in the cold wind and waiting.

At this time, I saw an errand slowly walking out of the yamen, and saluted Lang Jinzhong, who was waiting at the door, and said, "By the order of the Privy Council, I have invited the envoys of the Western Xia to come in." ”

In fact, Lang Jinzhong came early this morning, but the messenger guarding the door said that the privy councillor had business to do, and asked him to wait for a while, and did not let him into the gatehouse to rest, so he left Lang Jinzhong at the door of the yamen and ran away. Lang Jinzhong had no choice but to stand at the door of the yamen and wait, at this time it was the end of October, Yijing entered the early winter, the cold wind blew on the body, and Yijing had a biting cold.

Lang Jinzhong's subordinates scolded in a whisper from the mouths of the people, and Lang Jinzhong also knew that the Song Dynasty was deliberately slacking himself, but now it was the Western Xia who sued the Southern Song Dynasty for peace, and he could only endure the humiliation, and at the same time persuade the people to be in a hurry. However, although he was restraining others, he was also holding back the fire in his heart.

After the cold wind blew for most of the hour, it turned out that what he was waiting for was such a sentence. Although there is a word "please" in these words, the person who passed the word was only a servant. Lang Jinzhong is also the left privy envoy of Western Xia, although the Western Xia is small, but the identity is not much worse than Liu Hui, even if Liu Heng does not personally greet him, he should also send a subordinate official with status to greet him, not just call a servant to come, this is obviously to look down on people.

And that's not all, but the title of "Western Xia" is only called by the Song and Jin countries in private, in the current occasion or in the official document of the national letter, whether it is Jin or Song, it should be called "Dabai Gaoguo", and now the Great Song Dynasty should look at the face of Lang Jinzhong, and actually call it "Western Xia", Lang Jinzhong listened, only so angry that his whole body trembled, and he couldn't shake his sleeves and turned around and left immediately. Helplessly, now the form is stronger than the people, and the Western Xia wants to ask the Great Song Dynasty for peace, so they can only swallow their anger and follow the messenger to go in.

Since the First Battle of Lanzhou, the Song army has won consecutive battles, and the good news has frequently spread to Jiankang, and the court is naturally full of joy. Zhao Chen was excited, and unconsciously gave birth to the idea of swallowing Western Xia in one fell swoop. Fortunately, Chen Junqing, Han Yanzhi, Liu Hui, Yang Yizhong, Li Xianzhong and other ministers still kept a sober mind and strongly persuaded the emperor that with the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty, it was not enough to destroy the Western Xia, so they should not be blindly optimistic. But Zhao Chen was still a little unwilling.

At this time, Bai Yanjing, the envoy of the Jin State, also invited Zhao Chen to submit the letter of the Jin State, although the words were tactful, but also clearly expressed the attitude of the Jin State, if the Great Song Dynasty intended to destroy the Western Xia, then the Great Jin would never sit idly by and ignore the Western Xia, and the Song and Jin countries would meet each other again, so I hope that the Great Song Dynasty can agree to negotiate peace with the Western Xia, and the two countries will call off the army from now on.

After receiving the letter of state from the Jin State, Zhao Chen's somewhat feverish mind cleared up a lot, and at this time, Yang Yan also sent back an official document from Lanzhou, detailing the current situation in Western Xia. Moreover, Western Xia also sent an envoy to the Great Song Dynasty to sue for peace, and arrived in Jiankang with Yang Yan's official document.

This time, the Great Song Dynasty sent troops, and the number of men and horses mobilized exceeded 100,000, but the real combat effectiveness was only the forbidden army transferred from Jiankang and a part of the local imperial garrison, totaling less than 70,000, and the rest of the horses were all local Xiang troops and township troops in Sichuan, which could only be counted and could not be used. And the places occupied now have to be garrisoned, so although the Song army defeated the Western Xia army before, covering an area of more than 1,000 miles, the current military expansion has indeed reached the limit. Therefore, the Song army stopped the attack and switched to defending on the spot, and built cities in Gaolan and Yongdeng as a long-term fortification.

However, the initial goal of sending troops to hit the Western Xia was also achieved, if the fight continued, on the one hand, the Song army's battle line was too long, the troops were insufficient, and the Jin Dynasty would also send troops to intervene, so Yang Yan suggested that the imperial court should take advantage of the opportunity of the current Song army to negotiate peace with the Western Xia, and take more advantages in the terms of peace, which is the best policy.

After reading Yang Yan's letter, Zhao Chen calmed down, and after discussing with the ministers, they all thought that it was better to accept it when it was good, and make peace with the Western Xia, of course, peace would not be unconditional, the Western Xia must cede some land, and double the losses of the Great Song Dynasty and so on.

Of course, these conditions will have to be discussed slowly and in detail, and there will be a process of bargaining between the two sides, and the envoys of Western Xia obviously do not have the power to make a decision, and many things still need to be consulted in the country. Jiankang was too far away from Western Xia, and it took too much time to go back and forth, so the Great Song Dynasty court decided to send Liu Heng, the deputy privy envoy, to Xingzhou as the minister of Qin, and was fully responsible for the peace talks with Western Xia, and ordered Sichuan Xuanfu to envoy Wang Yan to cooperate. So Zhao Chen immediately summoned the envoys of the Western Xia, expressed the meaning of the Great Song Dynasty, and then asked him to immediately turn back to the Western Xia, and asked the Western Xia court to send people to Xingzhou to negotiate peace.

After receiving the reply of the Great Song Dynasty promising peace talks, the government and the opposition also breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly sent the left privy envoy Lang Jinzhong as an envoy to the peace talks, and went to Xingzhou to negotiate peace with the Great Song Dynasty.

After Nazhi waited for Lang Jinzhong to arrive in Xingzhou, he waited for three days, but he did not receive Liu Heng to inform him to discuss the matter of peace talks, either he was busy with official business or he was unwell. Lang Jinzhong is not stupid, and naturally knows that the Southern Song Dynasty is deliberately making things difficult for himself. On the fourth day, Lang Zhenjin couldn't wait any longer, so he went to Liu Heng's hotel to find it in person, but he waited at the door for more than half an hour before being invited in.

Although he was holding his stomach angry, Lang Jinzhong also knew the current situation, and he still had to endure it. So he suppressed his anger and followed the messenger into the main hall, only to see Liu Hengzheng, the privy deputy envoy of the Song Dynasty, and Wang Yan, the envoy of Sichuan Xuanfu, sitting and talking to each other, both of them staring at the chessboard, as if they were engrossed, as if they did not see Lang Jinzhong coming in.

Lang Jinzhong just wanted to speak, but was stopped by the messenger and signaled to wait until we adults finished playing chess. Thinking that he had drunk all the water in the river, and he didn't care about this sip of water, Lang Jinzhong had no choice but to swallow the words back and wait patiently.

After two more pillars of incense, Liu Heng looked up as if by chance, and then saw Lang Jinzhong, and said casually: "Who is here?" ”

The messenger said: "If you return to the Xianggong, it is the envoy of Western Xia who has come." ”

Seeing this scene, Lang Jinzhong's eyes were so angry that he couldn't help but take a step forward, and said loudly: "I am still the left privy envoy of the Great White Gao, and I was sent by my Emperor of the Great White Gaozhong to discuss peace talks between the two countries with your ministers. Speaking of peace talks, Lang Zhenzhong remembered his task again, his head cleared up a little, and suppressed the anger that surged up again.

"Hey, it turned out that the envoy of Western Xia came." Liu Heng immediately made a statement of surprise, and complained to the errand officer, "Why didn't you tell me about useless things earlier?" If the major event of peace talks between the two countries is delayed, then what should it be? ”

At this time, Wang Yan smiled slightly and said: "Since Xianggong has something, then the lower officials will not disturb Xianggong, and today's game will be a draw." With that, he got up and said goodbye.

Liu Heng hurriedly got up and said, "Wang Xuanfu, today is really unfortunate, you and I will continue this unfinished situation another day." Regardless of Lang Jinzhong, he stood beside him and got up to see Wang Yan. I was so angry that I was so angry that I was smoking, but I couldn't stop silently thinking in my heart: calm down, you must be calm.

When Liu Heng returned to the lobby after sending Wang Yan off, it was as if he had just seen Lang Yan Jinzhong, and hurriedly said: "Lord Lang Yan, why are you still standing!" Please sit down and talk! Then he arched his hand to him and said, "Below is Liu Heng, the deputy envoy of the Great Song Dynasty, who is also responsible for peace talks with your country." Then he greeted the servant: "Serve tea, serve tea quickly." ”

Seeing Liu Heng's pretending appearance, the anger that Lang Jinzhong had just suppressed couldn't help but rise a little, and said, "Lord Liu, it's been a lot of delays, so let's talk about business, right?" ”

In fact, looking at the appearance that Lang Jinzhong was angry and could only be stuffy in his heart, Liu Heng was really happy in his heart. Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, wars with foreign countries have often been more defeated than victorious, so when they negotiate peace, they are also facing the opponent's aggressive attitude, trembling and walking on thin ice. To be able to fight rationally and accompany less silver is to live up to the mission.

Although Liu Heng had not served as an envoy to negotiate peace, he was also an old minister who had experienced the Four Dynasties, and he was forced to negotiate peace with the Jin State several times before, and the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty had always been submissive and swallowed their anger in front of the Jin State. Even if he negotiated peace with Jin Guo two years ago, it was only evenly matched, and in the end he had to think of a way to "give money to each other". It's like this time, you can put on a high-minded posture and watch others swallow their anger.

And Western Xia is not a small country like Jiaozhi and Dali, in the northwest corner, it is also a local power, Liao, Song, and Jin had no way to take him, but now they have to whisper to beg the Great Song Dynasty, and they can enjoy such treatment, they are only afraid that they are the first person in the Great Song Dynasty.

Of course, Liu Heng was so sloppy and slandered Jinzhong, and he didn't really want to feel the superiority of the victor, but had another purpose, deliberately to provoke Lang Jinzhong, so that this time the peace talks could not be reached, and then the Western Xia sent Ren Dejing to come forward to negotiate peace with the Great Song Dynasty, so that Ren Dejing's power in the Western Xia could be re-established, and he was firmly bound to the Great Song Dynasty, so that the Western Xia would not turn to the Jin State again in the future.

At this time, when the tea was served, Liu Heng unhurriedly picked up the tea bowl and took a breath, and then said slowly: "Since Lord Lang said so, then let's start talking!" ”

Seeing that Liu Heng finally agreed to start peace talks, Lang Zhenzhong's heart calmed down a little, and regardless of whether this was an occasion for negotiation, he immediately took out a booklet from his sleeve, handed it to Liu Hui, and said: "I, Dabai Gaoguo, am willing to form an alliance with Da Song Yong and be a brotherly state." As long as your country is willing to withdraw its troops from now on and the two countries make peace, our country is willing to offer these conditions. ”