Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

In Zhao Zhen's eyes, this great opportunity to seduce Lu Ci came from Tubo Zanpu Zhesiluo.

However, after teaming up with Cao Wei and winning a complete victory in the battle against Li Yuanhao, the new lord of the Xia Kingdom, Zanpu, who was newly in power, continued to rectify the regime that he had just acquired in an orderly manner.

If he wants to seek further development, he has to increase his strength as soon as possible.

Therefore, after this great victory that greatly increased his reputation and appeal, Zong Siluo actively sought a marriage, and quickly chose the Qiao family in Lijing City, and decisively married Qiao's daughter in the next month.

At the beginning of the next year, the newly married Qiao's daughter gave birth to a son named Dong Zhan.In this regard, Zong Siluo quickly consolidated the loyalty of Qiao's tribe, and won the whole-hearted followers of its [-] to [-] tribes.There is a family of wives who stick to Lijing City, and he lives in Qingtang City, which happens to be a situation where they can rescue each other at any time. It can not only prevent Xia from making a comeback, but also restore the past by firmly controlling Lijing City. A hundred years ago, an important commercial road - Tuyuhun Road.

To enter the Western Regions from the Great Song Dynasty, the only way is to take Ling and Xiazhou as the gateway to the north and south. Since Li Jiqian's rebellion against the Song Dynasty, they have been controlled by Dangxiang.Li Deming, the son of Li Jiqian, in order to accumulate strength and prepare for future rebellion, has been looting caravans for many years, detaining tribute envoys, imposing "ten to one" tax on passing caravans, and forcibly plundering the top-grade goods. The merchants hated it deeply and could do nothing.

Because Li Yuanhao suffered a crushing defeat this time, when he was pursued by the Tubo army along the way, he was forced to give up and protect these two business gateways, which he got for Zong Siluo.

Just when the merchants were worried, Zongsiluo did things that made them feel at ease one after another: first announced the abolition of the harsh tax system, and then sent troops to escort the tribute envoys from neighboring states back to the Song Dynasty, so that they could enter the Song Dynasty smoothly.

The restoration of the two commercial routes between the Central Plains and the Western Regions undoubtedly rejoiced the merchants and made the commercial routes lively for a while, but the various courts who saw this clearly had other intentions: this Tubo admirer Pu, obviously actively courting Song Ting.

——What they guessed was indeed not bad.

Others may be amazed by Xin Zanpu's scheming every step of the way, but Zansi himself has never been easily complacent because of this smoothness.

In the past, he belonged to the Duo Duo Department in the alliance, but after Li Lizun broke with Wen Buqi, he chose to go out alone.

Until Zhesiluo moved the capital to Qingtang, and faced the menacing Li Yuanhao, this part of Liuguzhu, who had wandered out, also maintained a stand-by attitude.

It wasn't until Zhe Siluo successfully repelled Li Yuanhao and retained the new regime that the Liugu Cube, who had been watching from the sidelines, bowed his head to him and was reincorporated into his tribe.

After witnessing the strong return of Zongsiluo, there are not a few people who have made the same choice as Liugushoubu: the largest number of them is obviously the old Pan Luozhi with as many as 10 people.

After a group of people who were once dissociated from the outside world and surrendered one after another, the number of ethnic groups who were willing to be controlled by the banner of Zongsiluo actually reached a small peak of 80 that has not been seen for many years.

Ji Siluo, who should have been proud of the spring breeze, did not get carried away, but became more cautious.

What he knew was that Tubo seemed to be strong on the surface for a while, but it was actually walking on thin ice, and there were countless undercurrents surging underneath.

Seeing that his strength has increased dramatically, these tribes choose to belong to him. I am afraid that once they witness his declining fatigue, they may turn around mercilessly, or they will stab a knife in the face of the well, and the Tubo tribe will also At any time, they will return to the diaspora state of "tribes scattered, not relative to each other".

Apart from the internal troubles, there are Khitan people on the east side who are eyeing tigers, and on the west side there are party members who are ready to move and want to take revenge at any time.

It can be seen from this that what he urgently needs to do is to be friendly to the Song court, proclaim himself a minister and pay tribute, so as to get full support.

It has been less than two years since Zhe Siluo regained power, but he has sent envoys to Bianjing to pay tribute six times.

Before marrying Qiao's daughter, he first proposed to marry the noble daughter of Song Ting, and after being rejected by Song Lord Zhao Zhen, he made another marriage proposal, which can be said to be full of sincerity.

In the face of Zongsiluo's repeated goodwill, apart from the relationship with the young master, it is difficult not to make Zhao Zhen feel good about him, and also add a little bit of curiosity.

Although most of the Song court still advocated a conservative and cautious attitude towards Tubo, which had a changing regime, Zhao Zhen paid more and more attention to Tubo's tribute, and even deliberately sent people to build Buddhist temples along the way of his tribute instead of using post houses to entertain envoys; The rebates to Tubo have also become more and more generous.

At first, Zhao Zhen also boasted that he was stingy and sent people to evaluate the tribute items first, and then reward them with equivalent value.

As the number of times increased, the Tubo envoys were respectful, sincere, and generous, and each time the tribute was mainly horses that were in short supply in the Song Dynasty. Compared with the domineering Khitan envoys, they were even more pleasing.

Reciprocity, Zhao Zhen became more generous unconsciously when he made a move, and it was the same in terms of canonization.

In less than two years, the canonization of Tongsiluo has changed three times: when Wen Buqi was in power, although Tongsiluo was Zanpu, he was only an inconspicuous official of the palace; , He was promoted to be a training envoy of Zetuan; later, he stayed for Jiedu one after another, and he is now the envoy of Jiedu.

The rapidity of his promotion, even if it is only a nominal official position, is enough to make the courtiers deeply moved in private.

Some people even secretly joked that since the founding of the Song Dynasty, it was thought that the monster who had been promoted the fastest was Lu Ci, but now it seems that Tubo Zanpu is even better.

In particular, Zansiluo and Lu Ci are similar in age, and Tubo Zanpu is only three years older than Lu Ci, which adds to the fun of talking about it.

Coincidentally, while actively developing a friendly relationship with Song Ting, Zong Siluo is also full of curiosity about Lu Ci who sent Di Qing, Zhang Kang and others to rescue him.

He really wanted to see the person who used all the hidden stakes buried in Tubo at one go to rescue Zanpu, who had undoubtedly died in the eyes of many people, and did not thank him for his kindness after the incident, but was unrestrained What kind of wonderful person is Lu Yuyu who is not afraid of him turning his face and denying others when he leaves with a flick of clothes.

But he is also clear that if the request is made too early, it will easily lead to unnecessary guesses and accidents in Tusheng.

After packing up the most important matters, and seeing that the relationship with Song Ting had been restored to a friendly level, in the letter of credence sent by the envoy, he politely and formally proposed the idea of ​​meeting the original Lu Qinzhou .

Obviously, although the power of Tubo Xin Zanpu tends to be stable, the multi-party background that needs to be accumulated is still insufficient.

In terms of detailed arrangements, it is only superficial, so it is possible to grasp some big news, but it is naturally ignorant of small details such as Lu Ci's death of his mother and his filial piety in the village.

When Zhao Zhen saw these polite words, his eyes lit up on the spot, his eyes rolled, and he was so happy that he wanted to raise his head and laugh three times.

— What a godsend!

What the little master said is right, the act of seizing one's feelings should only be used on important positions involving important military affairs or at extraordinary moments.

Doesn't the personal request of Tubo Zanpu, who has shown his favor frequently and sincerely attached to Da Song, meet this premise?

This is an important state matter involving the relationship between the Northwest and China!

After Zhao Zhen figured out these joints, he was almost overjoyed for a while.

After finally calming down, he suppressed his joy, regained his normal state of face sinking like water, took a few deep breaths, and then summoned the ministers of the Ministry of Education to discuss the matter together.

After the inner minister read the letter of state in front of the ministers, everyone was stunned. Li Di exchanged a surprised look with Kou Zhun, and then took the lead in bowing his hands, and replied to the serious official: " ...Although Lu Jiedu never met Zanpu in the past, he has a relationship with him, and it is reasonable for Zanpu to have an opinion on him..."

Kou Zhun, who has always been short-tempered, didn't rush to speak, but pondered for a while in silence.

He had always admired Lu Ci, a rare young talent, and out of his long-standing affection for him, he inevitably had three contradictory thoughts.

One is to sympathize with his newly bereaved mother, who may still be in a low mood, and it is difficult to mediate quietly for a while; It would be great if the reasons were reused for the sake of love; the third is that it is hard to distinguish the mind of Ji Siluo. Although he throws out a high-sounding excuse, it is difficult to understand the intention, and the journey to Tubo is far away. This trip can be described as good or bad. …

Zhao Zhen suppressed the eagerness in his heart, listened patiently to Li Di's long speech with bright eyes, and finally heard what he wanted to hear: "...At present, there are foreign enemies around, and friendship with Tubo is the top priority... According to my opinion, It is necessary to win over Lu Ci, give him the post of envoy, and send him to Tubo..."

To this day, Song courtiers all know that Tubo and Song Dynasty are very valuable for their harmony: don’t look at the Khitan ruler Yelu Longxu who seems to hate the party’s son-in-law Li Yuanhao to death, but once the exchanges between Tubo and Song Dynasty appear If there is a gap, the two tigers and wolves can reunite at any time to plunder the long-coveted two.

At present, Tubo Zanpu is so knowledgeable and interesting, and if Da Song treats them generously, then they will reciprocate, and let Lu Ci, who single-handedly contributed to the good story, go to Tubo as an envoy.

Since it was an extremely opportune time, and it also involved dealings with important tribal forces, it was inevitable to rob Lu Ci who was keeping his filial piety.

Kou Zhun opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but swallowed it back, and simply echoed Li Di's opinion.

In any case, it is true that national affairs should be the most important thing.

With Lu Ci's astuteness, not to mention that Tubo Zanpu should not have any malicious intentions, if he really has other plans, he should be able to easily deal with them, or find out some signs.

The more Kou Zhun thought about it, the more reliable he became.

——Maybe, with Lu Taotie's stinky temperament, who can miss Lingnan lychees, and wanted to invite himself to work in the poor mountains and rivers of Lingnan in his early years, how could he be afraid of the long journey?I am afraid that I have long been greedy for the delicious grapes and mellow wine of Tubo!

In the end, as the little emperor, who had been thinking about it for a long time, snapped up the case, the matter was completely settled.

Just ten days later, Lu Ci, who was caught off guard by receiving an edict for an urgent recall, felt numb in the face of this familiar scene.

...can you give him a good rest?

The author has something to say: Notes:

Regarding the situation in Tubo in this chapter, refer to Tang Kaijian, the author of "Historical Investigation on the Tubo Regime in the Qing and Tang Dynasties during the Reign of Zhesiluo"

The full text is quite long, and a small part is hereby excerpted.

The first marriage of Zhe Siluo was in the seven years of Dazhong Xiangfu. At that time, the power was still very weak. Indeed, Siduo obviously wanted to expand his power through a political marriage with Li Lizun's group. Li Lizun's decline and the split with Li's group, This led to the second political marriage that Quesiduo sought to develop. "Changbian" Volume [-] Jingku three years in December Xinwei article "At the beginning, Zong Siluo married Li Lizun's daughter, and had two sons, called blind felt, and mo felt horn. He also married Qiao, and gave birth to a son named Dong felt. "

The Qiao family should be a member of the Qiao family, a Tubo tribe with 7 people. They first lived in Lijingcheng, and then lived in the south of Xunhua, Hezhou.

After Nanshiduo moved to Qingtang, the close force he mainly relied on was the Qiao family.The base of hatred of the Qiao family is Lijing City, which is located in Xisili of Yiqingtang.In order to stabilize and consolidate his political power and prevent the rebellion of dissident forces, Quesiduo led his troops to live in Qingtang City, and his wife Qiao led his troops to live in Lijing City, becoming a cornerstone.One is to guard against various accidents such as Chen Bing Liangzhou’s Xixia going south and Wen Tongqi’s revenge, so that they can take care of each other and rescue each other. Tuzhu Zhuan states that "Siduo lives in Buzhou, and there is Lingu City in the west, that is, Lijing City, which leads to Qinghai. Merchants from Gaochang countries all tend to trade in Duzhou, so they are prosperous and strong." After moving to Qingtang, it is true that Siduo used The geographical conditions are favorable to develop the commercial economy and obtain a certain material foundation. On the other hand, they continue to use the prestige of the descendants of Tubo Zanpu to expand their power.During the period of Zongge Alliance, the Duduo Governor of Quesiduo, who once returned to Yangyang, was separated from the alliance due to the breakdown of Zongge's grammar. Incorporated into the Quesiduo regime. "Song History Tubo Biography" "And Yuan Hao took the old Pan Luozhi of Xiliang Prefecture and often returned to Siduo, and got back thousands of people." Take Xiliang Mansion, and there are more than 10 people who are indeed Siduo and Duo Duo, Hui Lun also returned to Yan with tens of thousands." Yuan Wu took Xiliang Mansion in the first year of Ming Dao, so it is said that this time Duo Duo returned to Yang After quesuiduo moved to Qingtang.There were more than [-] people in Liugu Cubu, and tens of thousands of Huilun were added. The power of nearly [-] people was attached to Ding Quesiduo at one time, which led to a sharp expansion of Quesiduo's strength.

The Anziluo tribe alone has [-] soldiers, and the military strength of Nanshuduo in this period should be at least twice that.It can be seen that after Quesiduo moved to the Qingtang Dynasty, not only the Chuduo Du and Hui tribes belonged, but also those Tubo tribes who left after breaking up Zongge's grammar returned to Quesiduo. under the banner.It is said in history that "its power is stronger than that of the Qiangs.