The next morning, the rumors in the market were finally confirmed, Yan Shu led the officials of the two governments, three yas, and one cadre to jointly play Zhao Zhen and recommend Su Jin to enter the center; Yan Shu actually proposed to let Xian Yu Su Jin, so that Du Yan had to pretend to give up the position of privy envoy.

Of course, Su Jin knew that this was their politeness, although it was possible for him to enter the center, but if he wanted to ascend to the sky and become a privy envoy or prime minister in one step, it was just talking, even if they were sincere, Zhao Zhen would not agree, the minister of the ruling was not just meritorious, he must be a person who advanced and retreated in a pivotal manner, and he was not qualified enough at present.

Sure enough, after Su Jin humbly said that he was still young and could not bear the responsibility, Zhao Zhen naturally rejected Yan Shu and others to make Xian's proposal, but immediately announced the appointment of Su Jin as the deputy privy envoy to participate in political affairs; In other words, Su Jin has the triple status of deputy prime minister of the political affairs hall, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and deputy envoy of the three departments appointed before the war, and has the right to speak in government affairs, military, and finance.

It's just that the three deputy positions of politics, military and economics seem to be extremely beautiful, but none of them have the right to decide, and there is a little embarrassment outside the scenery, but it can be seen that Zhao Zhen really values Su Jin this time; As a concurrently important position in the political, military, and economic departments, this is the first person since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, not to mention that this person is only twenty-one years old and has only been in the office for five years, which is enough to make the world talk about it and marvel.

Above the court, for the pattern after the Xia Liao War, the ministers expressed their opinions and made a discussion, such discussions have been carried out many times before, and the opinions tend to be basically unified, but Su Jin was not present, this kind of discussion is somewhat insufficient, and now that the parties have arrived, the discussion has set the tone of decision-making.

Prime Minister Yan Shu recounted the results of the discussion in the hall for many days, and the attitude of the court was quite clear, everyone believed that after the Xia Liao War, the vitality of the two countries was greatly damaged, and there would be no more provocation in a short period of time.

Nong Zhigao occupies the advantage of the high mountains and dense forests, and Di Qing has been dealing with Di Qing for nearly half a year, the eyes of the imperial court are aimed at the northern war situation, and the battle against the little barbarians is obviously not very concerned, so that the officers and soldiers have been defeated in a row, so that Nong Zhigao's arrogance has risen sharply, so that when the two tigers of Xia and Liao are injured, the imperial court can transfer the two garrison troops in the northwest and northeast to the south to sweep away Nong Zhigao's trouble.

Su Jin listened to Yan Shu's narration and felt a little surprised; Di Qing's ability is undoubted, the reason why he can't succeed for a long time, I'm afraid that in the end it is because of the insufficient supply of materials and troops, Di Qing's main force to quell the rebellion in the south is still the box soldiers of Guangnan Zuo near the state capital, the south has been peaceful for a long time, although it is a border, but the bordering Nanyi, Jiaozhi and other countries are all subject countries of the Great Song Dynasty, the imperial court naturally has no need to spend huge sums of money to strengthen the training and equipment of the box army in the southwest states, Di Qing has the ability, and it is difficult to bring a group of rabble who can not fight.

Of course, Su Jin agreed to increase his troops in Guangnan, but he would never agree to withdraw troops from the northwest and northeast, because he had a slightly different view of the current situation than everyone else; When Zhao Zhen asked by name, Su Jin confessed frankly.

"Your Majesty, my lords, it is imperative to increase troops in the southwest, in addition to increasing troops, there must be sufficient supplies of materials, Nong Zhigao occupies a favorable position, and is familiar with the terrain, maybe the local Yi people will secretly support him, we must give General Di Qing enough support in order to help him quell the rebellion; Personally, I would like to make a statement, the 5,000 barrels of oil I helped Xia this time did not come in handy, and I have brought all of them back to the northwest, and I will immediately order someone to transport this batch of oil to the south, there are many mountains and forests in the south, and it may come in handy. ”

Everyone secretly stuck out their tongues, Su Jin was rich and generous, and it was unknown where the five thousand barrels of oil came from, but the value of the five thousand barrels of oil was worth millions of dollars, Su Jin said that he would send it, and his brows did not wrinkle, and he was really in the northwest for several years, and it was already fat.

Zhao Zhen smiled and said: "Su Aiqing is very thoughtful, the oil is refined by yourself, and at this moment, you can devote all your resources to support the imperial court to quell the rebellion, this act of disregarding selfish interests should be a model; Although the court has no spare strength to give you a reward of money and silver, I will make a note of your credit in my heart. ”

Su Jindao: "National events and personal selfish interests must be based on the country, the Great Song Dynasty cannot be leveled, how can individuals be glorious?" Moreover, this batch of fire oil was originally intended to be used in the battle of Liaoxia, and it was quite surprising to me that it could be retained; The imperial court also wanted to support General Di in all aspects, but I think it was inappropriate to send troops and horses south from the northwest and northeast borders. ”

Zhao Zhen frowned and said, "Oh? Now there are 200,000 troops stationed in the northwest, and there are also 250,000 garrisons on the front line in Bazhou in the northeast. ”

Su Jindao: "The minister can only say that everything is not what we imagined, yes, this time Liaoxia suffered huge losses, and the total number of casualties in the battle between the two countries exceeded 400,000, which greatly damaged the vitality of the two countries, but based on this, it was a bit hasty to conclude that the two countries were no longer threatened; Around the New Year, while the minister closed the door to thank the guests, he also made an analysis of the situation, recalling the various things before and after the war, the minister admitted that the previous judgment of the Xia and Liao countries was biased, and the Xia and Liao countries were able to compete with our Great Song Dynasty for more than 100 years, and gradually suppressed the trend of our Great Song Dynasty, it is not accidental. ”

Zhao Zhen raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh? Su Aiqing said let's talk about it, listening to your words, I have some admiration for Xia Liao. ”

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's right, the minister does have respect for them, and behind the respect is fear, in other words, I am a little afraid of the two clans of this party and the Khitan." ”

The ministers are buzzing, some people are stunned, some people think, some people don't think so, in the case of the success of the Great Song Dynasty strategy without killing a single soldier, leading to the two countries fighting each other, hundreds of thousands of casualties today, Su Jin said such a thing It seems a little out of place, but at this moment and then, if Su Jin spoke like this a few years ago, there were ministers in court who immediately refuted him, at this moment Su Jin is already a central minister, the weight of what he said has been greatly different, the ministers are not accidental, What I want to know more is what is the reason why this Lord Su is in the middle of the day.

"It's the first time I've heard such words from you, and in my impression, you don't seem to be afraid of anything, and you tell me your reasons." Zhao Zhen said with a smile.

Su Jindao: "Fearlessness is because of ignorance, the minister's previous cognition of Xia and Liao only existed on the surface, and his dealings with the Xia people were limited to the battle of Weizhou, and his dealings with the Liao people were blank except for a confrontation with the Liao envoys; But this time, the minister came into contact with the Liaoxia army and gained a lot; The success of this plan to drive away the wolf and the tiger is due to the right timing, the Liao people made a mistake in decision-making, and wanted to use our Great Song Dynasty's hatred of the Xia people to achieve their goals, which was the opportunity we seized; And the reason why the Xia people are willing to cooperate is because they are on the verge of destroying the country and have to join forces with us, in fact, my Great Song Dynasty has achieved the purpose of sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight from the actual effect this time, but psychologically it has pulled the great hatred between the two countries, which the emperor and your lords should understand. ”

Zhao Zhen lowered his head and pondered, and the ministers also exchanged their heads and began to discuss.

Su Jindao: "Ancient sayings" Taking history as a mirror', during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu were the strongest, and the strength of Wei was the largest, but Shu and Wu were not united before Wei showed an aggressive offensive, and when Wei was enough to destroy any of its countries, Shu and Wu worked closely together to resist Wei, completely ignoring the multiple conflicts of interest and suspicions between the two countries, that is because when life and death are at stake, any kind of festival can be left behind; on the other hand, now, the great war between the two countries of Liaoxia and Xia took place under extremely reluctant circumstances, if it were not for the coercion of our Great Song Dynasty, the Xia State would never be driven to fight to the death with the Liao; if we wishfully believe that these two countries will become mortal enemies for generations, it would be a big mistakeIn the current situation, you, we must guard against the secret alliance between the two countries, we can yin others, and others can also yin us. ”

The ministers were silent, Zhao Zhen also frowned and was speechless, Du Yan couldn't help but say: "Master Su, it's not as serious as you said, the two countries have been injured so badly, even if they have the heart, I'm afraid they won't be able to attack, right?" ”

Su Jin shook his head and said: "Don't be careless, the news I got is that after the war, the Xia people immediately transferred their army to the south, and the strength of the troops in Huizhou and Youzhou increased from 100,000 before the war to 200,000, how can this be explained?" It stands to reason that after the Liaoxia War, in order to prevent the Liao people from retaliating, the Xia State should have stationed a large army in the north and south of Helan Mountain, but in fact, they had no such intention at all, but instead increased their troops at the border with our Great Song Dynasty, without even the slightest hesitation, isn't this worth pondering? ”

Zhao Zhen said slowly: "Maybe it is because the Liao people were injured, and my Great Song Dynasty is a direct threat, so Xia arranged it like this." ”

Su Jindao: "The minister doesn't think so, at least he doesn't fully agree, the Liao people's claim of one million soldiers may be exaggerated, but at least there are seven or eight hundred thousand standing troops, this time more than 200,000 were annihilated, and the remaining army is as much as five or six hundred thousand, which is not much different from the total number of 800,000 troops of my Great Song Dynasty forbidden army; And this time I saw with my own eyes the Xia State's ability to recruit troops, in such a difficult situation, the Xia State recruited 80,000 new troops in almost a few days, the Liaoxia military system is similar, it can be inferred that the Liao people want to recover in numbers almost effortlessly, their main loss is the loss of elite, and the combat power of the recruits is limited, which is what they scruple about; And in terms of combat power, the combat ability and strict military discipline of the soldiers of the two countries are their highlights, and I can only say that my Great Song soldiers are far inferior in these two points. ”