At least at the moment when Yelu Bawotai showed a kind old man and amiable father, Yang Huairen was not hostile to him.

After lunch, Yelu Bawotai was reluctant to let Yang Huairen's aunt go, only heard that the mother-in-law looked at her son-in-law, the more she looked at it, the happier she became, but she didn't expect the old man to look at her uncle, and the more she looked at it, the more comfortable she became, so she ordered her subordinates to serve tea, pulled Yang Huairen to sit down, and began to tell him about the customs of the Khitan people marrying their daughters.

In fact, before the wedding on the day of the Bowl Festival, the palace will naturally send officials from the Ministry of Rites to teach Khitan etiquette to Yang Huairen, a golden sword horse, without worrying about Yelu Bawotai at all.

But Yelu Bawotai may have been too happy, and after drinking some wine, he became a chatterbox.

While the two were talking, a housekeeper from the Southern Courtyard Palace's Mansion came to report, saying that there was a father-in-law in the palace who had made an order, and sent a message to the future concubine, saying that he was summoned to the palace, and His Majesty the Emperor also wanted to talk to him, and also asked the King of the Southern Courtyard to accompany him.

Yang Huairen's heart tightened, and he immediately knew that the news of the war in Song and Xia in the west had also spread to the Khitan Palace, and Yelu Hongji summoned him to the palace this time, I don't know if he wanted to question him.

Yelu Bawotai didn't know this, he only thought that Yelu Hongji was in the same mood as him, and he also wanted to teach Yang Huairen, the golden sword horse, face-to-face, and secretly said something to help Yelu Yanxi, so he laughed loudly, "I didn't expect Your Majesty to see you too, it just so happens that I, the future old man, will accompany you into the palace." ”

Yelu Bawotai did not let Yang Huairen still ride in the car he used when he came, but invited Yang Huairen to enter the palace with him.

Along the way, Yelu Bawotai still refused to stop, and pulled a lot of hammers in the east and mallets in the west, Yang Huairen accepted with a smile, but in his heart he was thinking about how to explain the war between Song and Xia when he entered the palace and saw Yelu Hongji.

As the king of the Southern Courtyard and the cousin of Yelu Hongji, Yelu Bawotai naturally has some privileges, and when the inner guards at the palace gate saw that it was his car, they didn't even stop him, and let him enter the palace directly.

Yelu Bawotai was still smiling, and when he found out that Yelu Hongji was in Xinuan Pavilion, he did not shy away from pulling Yang Huairen all the way and said.

When he entered the Xinuan Pavilion, Yang Huairen found that there were several other important ministers in the Liao court who had already arrived, including Yelu and Lu Wei, the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, Xiao Sabi, the king of the Northern Courtyard, and Yelu Yanxi, the emperor's grandson.

After each of them gave a salute, Yelu Hongji said directly, "This is not a court meeting, so you don't need to be polite." ”

Then he looked at Yang Huairen, "Envoy Yang must be wondering why I summoned several important ministers of my country into the palace, but you are the only one who is an envoy of the Song Dynasty, right?" ”

Yelu Hongji's tone was very flat, and his face was not shocked, Yang Huairen couldn't guess his mind for a while, and couldn't figure out whether he was testing him, so he pretended not to know why, and replied with a smile, "The envoy thinks about it, it should be to discuss matters related to the wedding ceremony given by the envoy and Princess Anguo on the day of the bowl festival, right?" ”

Yang Huairen also saw clearly at this time that on the several cases in front of Yelu Hongji, in addition to the normal official documents, there was also a red-headed envelope that seemed to have just been opened, presumably this was the military residence of the Liao State, not surprisingly, the content written on it should be the same as the news he got earlier.

This also confirms Yang Huairen's speculation that the news of the Song-Xia War in the west has reached Zhongjing, but Yelu Hongji got the news half a day later than Yang Huairen.

Several other important ministers seemed to be suspicious, if they just wanted to find Yang Huairen to talk about such a matter, they would not need to be present at all, but Yelu Hongji hurriedly summoned them into the palace together, what did it mean?

Although Yelu Hongji remained silent, he understood from Yang Huairen's reaction that he already knew the news, but just now he pretended not to know, it seems that there must be something else in it.

He picked up a letter from several cases, handed it to a father-in-law who was waiting beside him, and motioned for him to pass the letter to several important ministers, but said calmly, "It seems that Envoy Yang doesn't know what is happening in the west yet." ”

Yang Huairen hates this, the reason why he is reluctant to get involved in the affairs of the Great Song Dynasty is because he doesn't like everyone to talk together, and he has to work hard to guess what the other party is thinking.

It's not that he won't, but he feels that this is very annoying, and chatting freely with his brothers is the most comfortable, and the kind of intrigue in the court, deceitful and deceitful, is not only tiring, but more importantly, tiring.

But he has to face all this now, from Yelu Hongji's performance, Yang Huairen seems to have guessed what Yelu Hongji is thinking, since he can't hide it, instead of continuing to pretend to be stupid and stupid to make Yelu Hongji doubt him even more, it is better to make up a reasonable reason to prevaricate the past.

"Something about the West?"

Yang Huairen pondered for a while before he suddenly realized, "Your Majesty is talking about my Song Dynasty asking Western Xia for the land of several states that were occupied by Western Xia before, right?" ”

At this time, several important ministers had already finished reading the Di newspaper and knew the news that Song Xia had started a war, and their expressions were all puzzled, and in the same puzzled expressions, it could be seen that they each had a ghost.

Hearing that Yang Huairen just made such a painless reason lightly, at least Yelu Hongji felt that it was unreasonable.

The Song Dynasty's policy of exchanging land for peace has always been a long time, because the alliance between Song and Liao agreed on the boundary of the Baigou River, and there has been no contradiction on the border issue over the years, let alone war.

However, between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, there was a war almost every ten years, and the Song Dynasty won fewer and lost more, so every time the Song Dynasty lost a battle, it ceded some remote prefectures and counties in the northwest border in exchange for temporary peace.

The land area of these prefectures and counties seems to be very large, but in fact the population is sparse, there are no decent products, and the barren land can't even grow much grain, so the Song Dynasty court and officials don't care too much.

For the Western Xia, it was also felt that it was chicken ribs, tasteless food, and it was a pity to abandon it, although it took advantage of the Song Dynasty, but this cheapness was almost negligible in terms of economic interests and strategic significance.

It is disgraceful to say such a thing as peace easily, and it is not a decent thing for a big country like the Great Song Dynasty to be treated, let alone some grievances among the people.

If it is said that the Song Dynasty fought a battle with the Jingsai army of Western Xia in Huanzhou a year ago, and the victory gave the Song Dynasty a lot of self-confidence, so it launched a war the next year to ask the Western Xia for the states and counties that were ceded before, the reason given by Yang Huairen makes people feel that the front can be said to be in the past.