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Cai Jing and Tong Guan are like a pair of happy enemies. To use a word from later generations, it is: love and kill each other.

Tong Guan's background was not good (you can't be a eunuch even if you are good). Although he later became the apprentice of Li Xian, a famous military eunuch during the Shenzong period, Li Xian actually did not pave any way for Tong Guan.

Of course, because of Li Xian, Tong Guan knew the Northwest region very well, which was one of the reasons why he became successful in the future.

The reason why Tong Guan was able to stand out from a bunch of ordinary eunuchs was because he met Cai Jing.

That year, in the autumn of the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo, Tong Guan, a 48-year-old court, came to Hangzhou to preside over the Mingjin Bureau and collect folk literary and calligraphy and paintings scattered among the people for Zhao Ji.

Cai Jing was impeached by the censors, and was pushed out of the court by Zeng Bu, and lived in Hangzhou.

In Hangzhou, Cai Jing began to interact with Tong Guan.

In addition to being a famous politician, Cai Jing was also a famous calligrapher. When Zhao Ji first ascended the throne, he was recognized as a talented man in the dynasty.

When I heard that Tong Guan, who had the opportunity to meet Zhao Ji, came to Hangzhou, Cai Jing immediately went to visit him.

The two fell in love with each other at first sight and have become close friends since then.

Cai Jing's cultural qualities are indeed superior. He helped Tong Guan provide advice and helped Tong Guan collect and appraise cultural, calligraphy and paintings. Tong Guan has been repeatedly commended by Zhao Ji, especially the painting "Chongping Chess Picture" by Zhou Wenju of the Southern Tang Dynasty collected by Cai Jing, which made Zhao Ji regarded as the treasure of the world and could not put it down.

Tong Guan was very grateful to Cai Jing. In return for Cai Jing, Tong Guan often presented some of Cai Jing's fine calligraphy works to Zhao Ji and said something good for Cai Jing.

Soon, the political situation of the court changed, and Cai Jingdong made a comeback and returned to politics.

Not long after, Cai Jing defeated Han Zhongyan and Zeng Bu and became the prime minister who monopolized the power.

At this time, the Qingtang and Qiang regime changed. Cai Jing felt that this was a good opportunity to actively expand the border, so he suggested to Zhao Ji to take the opportunity to send troops to the west, recover Qingtang and Qiang, and restore the old northwest border.

At that time, Cai Jian's father Cai Bian was appointed as the Privy Council. Zhao Ji asked Cai Bian: "Can Huangzhou be restored?"

Cai Bian thought it was OK and recommended Wang Hou, the son of Wang Shao, to be the general.

Cai Jing strongly recommended Tong Guan as the military supervisor, because Tong Guan followed the military supervisor Li Xian to and from the northwest front more than ten times during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty, and had a relatively comprehensive understanding of the mountains, rivers and terrain of the border areas and the talents and characteristics of the generals of the Northwest Army.

To be fair, Cai Jing recommended Tong Guan to be both public and selfish.

From the perspective of public opinion, Cai Jing's reason for recommendation is valid and in line with the actual situation. Tong Guan is indeed very suitable for serving as the military supervisor.

From the perspective of selfishness, Cai Jing is also a favor for Tong Guan.

Going to the Northwest Front as a military supervisor is a major turning point in Tong Guanren's life.

From then on, Tong Guan finally embarked on the road to prosperity.

In April of the second year of Chongning, Tong Guan left Tokyo with his official position and came to Xizhou (later generation Lintao, Gansu).

In early June, Wang Hou followed the footsteps of his father Wang Shao and Tong Guan followed the footsteps of his master Li Xian. They personally led the army to set off - their goal of this battle was to recover Huangzhou.

The Song army divided into two groups and marched towards Huangzhou, and continued to encounter resistance from the Qiang army along the way, but the army was invincible.

After the troops arrived at the city of Huangzhou, Wang Hou and Tong Guan ordered the two armies to join forces to attack, demanding that Huangzhou be captured in one go.

After fierce battles day and night, at dawn, the army advanced into the city.

Soon, the Huangzhou area was about 1,500 miles, with a population of about 100,000, and about a dozen cities and villages, all under the control of the Song army.

Zhao Ji was overjoyed when he heard the news and rewarded all officials with great rewards. Tong Guan was also promoted to the envoy of the Inner Imperial City.

In March of the third year of Chongning, Tong Guan and Wang Hou launched the battle to recover Qingtang. They led a 100,000 army from Xizhou, divided into three groups, and continued the western expedition.

The Song army fought fiercely with the Qiang army near Zongge City (later Qinghai Ping'an), and the Qiang army was defeated.

The Song army captured Zongge City and took advantage of the victory to advance straight to the city of Shanzhou.

The king of the Kingdom of Gesila, Xishalusa, ran alone and ran away alone. Her mother, Princess Kucha and other big leaders opened the city gate and surrendered.

The news came back to the capital, the whole country was jubilant, the government and the country were sensational, and Tong Guan and Wang Hou were well-known.

The imperial court ordered Shanzhou to be changed to Xining to bring peace to the West.

Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, the Qingtang area, which had been trapped in the hands of Tubo for three hundred years, was finally recovered by the Song Dynasty.

This time, the border area was more than 3,000 miles, and more than 2,700 surrendered generals and more than 700,000 household registrations were recruited. The border of the Song Dynasty passed through Qinghai to the border of Kucha.

During this process, there was one thing that made Tong Guan famous in the army.

The incident happened on the march road during the Qingtang expedition to the West.

One day, when the army marched to Huangchuan, Tong Guan suddenly received a letter from Zhao Ji's imperial pen from a fast horse, ordering him to return to his army. The reason was that there was a fire in Taiyi Palace, and Zhao Ji was worried that it would be unfavorable to go out.

After Tong Guan looked at it, he folded the edict and stuffed it into the boot.

Wang Hou asked: "What is the will of the official family?"

Tong Guan smiled and replied, "The official urges us to succeed quickly."

After occupying Qingtang City, Tong Guan slowly took out the imperial edict at the celebration banquet and gave it to the generals.

Wang Hou was shocked when he saw it and said, "What if the troops failed this time?"

Tong Guan smiled slightly and said, "I have already planned and will definitely win a great victory. In case of failure, of course, I, Tong Guan, will bear the blame alone, and it has nothing to do with you."

All the generals admire Tong Guan's courage and mind.

Tong Guan resisted the order, not only did not blame Zhao Ji, but was highly appreciated. He made an exception and promoted Tong Guan to Jingfu Palace Envoy and Xiangzhou Observation Envoy.

This incident not only allowed Tong Guan to establish an image in the army, but also established an image in Zhao Ji's heart.

Two years later, Wang Hou died of illness.

Since then, the military situation in the northwest border of the Song Dynasty has been mainly supported by Tong Guan.

Tong Guan also became an indispensable and irreplaceable military pillar for the Northern Song Dynasty.

The reason why Tong Guan has a high prestige in the Northwest Army is that in addition to the position factors, there are two other important points:

First, Tong Guan was willing to spend money, and he paid a generous pension to the fallen soldiers.

Second, Tong Guan valued friendship very much. He took the son of the fallen general as his adopted son, provided them with food, clothing, housing and transportation, so that they could receive a good education, and arranged appropriate work.

In addition, Tong Guan was willing to pave the way for himself - he was generous and had a good personality, was very polite, could be generous and generous. Whether it was concubines in the harem, palace maids and eunuchs, or Taoist ministers, he could get benefits from him, and he was never stingy.

More importantly, Tong Guan is meticulous, very insightful, and good at guessing Zhao Ji's interests and intentions. Therefore, he is always able to do things to the point, making Zhao Ji very satisfied with him.

Gradually, Tong Guan's wings gradually became fuller.

Four years ago, Xixia provoked another incident, and Zhao Ji decided to attack him hard.

Tong Guan was ordered to come to the northwest front and immediately made arrangements to launch a counterattack against Xixia.

The Xihe Strategic Commander Liu Fa led 150,000 infantry and cavalry out of Huangzhou, the Qinfeng Strategic Commander Liu Zhongwu led 50,000 infantry out of Huizhou, and Tong Guan personally led the central army to Lanzhou to support the two armies.

Liu Zhongwu went to Qingshui River to build a city and left his troops to guard the city.

Liu Fa fought fiercely with the Xia army at Gugulong, and killed the enemy's heads at level 3,000, and won a complete victory.

Xixia's arrogance was beaten down.

Zhao Ji was overjoyed and then issued an edict to appoint Tong Guan to command the six strategic and pacification envoys in the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, including Huanqing, Qinfeng, Jingyuan, Hexi, Yongxing, and Fuqing, to unify the command of the northwest border defense army, wait for an opportunity to destroy Xixia and recover their homeland.

The Strategy and Pacification Envoy was first set up in Shaanxi for the need to fight against Xixia. He was the commander of the military region at the level of the road.

Zhao Ji appointed Tong Guan as the general manager of the six military regions in the northwest to improve the military's coordinated combat capabilities to gain the initiative in war, and also reflects a high level of trust in Tong Guan.

Since then, all the elite troops of the entire northwest region of the Song Dynasty were under the control of Tong Guan.

Tong Guan also began to get rid of Cai Jing's control over him.

Tong Guan began to serve the people with arrogance, and completely left the imperial court, bypassed Cai Jing, and reported to Zhao Ji directly.

This not only hurt Cai Jing's self-esteem, but also destroyed the system of the court, which caused great dissatisfaction among Cai Jing, and the relationship between the two began to appear.

Later, Zhao Ji thought of Tong Guan's outstanding military achievements in the northwest Kaibing border, and issued an edict to grant Tong Guan the three departments of Kaifu Yitong.

Kaifu Yi Tong Sansi is an honorary official title that shows the emperor's grace and lofty social status.

Cai Jing firmly opposed this edict and refused to implement it. He said angrily: "Tong Guan is a eunuch. It is a bit too much to let him serve as the governor. How can he be granted the prime minister?"

Tong Guan was also very angry when he heard about this. He secretly contacted the Chief Censor Shi Gongbi, the Deputy Chief Censor Zhang Kegong and other ministers to impeach Cai Jing. Then he encouraged Guo Tianxin to enter the palace and say to Zhao Ji: "There is a black spot in the sun, and the Lord is repelling the ministers, otherwise it will be unknown."

Cai Jing stopped his prime minister because of this.

Later, Tong Guan, who wanted to make greater contributions, had the idea of ​​recapturing the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

But when the times were in charge of Cai Jing, He Zhizhong and Zhang Shangying, who were in charge of the government affairs, were useless in Tong Guan's eyes. Tong Guan believed that whether it was Zhang Shangying, Zheng Juzhong and He Zhizhong, they were far inferior to Cai Jing. Cai Jing was brave and decisive in his actions. As long as he saw the right things, he would resolutely dare to act and never retreat.

Tong Guan thought: "If you want to start a war against the Liao Kingdom in the north, it will never be possible without a strong court as a backing."

So Tong Guan secretly helped Cai Jing to regain prime minister, and he said to Zhao Ji: "When I went to Liao Kingdom, the Liao lord told me that Cai Jing would not be used in the Southern Dynasties and could not bring peace."

Soon, Cai Jing returned to the prime minister.

Although Tong Guan caused Cai Jing to lose his position and helped Cai Jing get back to the court again, it seems that he had two thrusts.

But the accounts are not settled in this way. This time, Cai Jing left the court for three years, which was definitely a heavy blow to the Cai family.

More importantly, Tong Guan made Cai Jing, who was already at the top, lose his position as a minister, and then let Cai Jing, who was demoted to the end, restore his ability to be in the position, which made the Cai family deeply afraid.

Moreover, Cai Jing has had three ups and downs, and Tong Guan has always been at the peak of power in the Northern Song Dynasty, which has made the Cai family think.

The Cai family has actually made a conclusion, that is, Zhao Ji cannot do without Tong Guan, who controls the most elite army of the Northern Song Dynasty, so Tong Guan is so able to do so.
To be continued...