On this day, during the routine handling of government affairs, Liu E suddenly asked about Qian Weiyan's incident the day before yesterday.
"Has Sixth Brother read the poems that Qian Weiyan presented?"
"Have seen it."
"What do Sixth Brother think?"
Li Jie pondered: "The Qian family of Wuyue did have the merit of offering soil, but this merit alone is not enough to be worthy of the temple."
"Hmm."
Liu E nodded slightly. The official's opinion was not beyond her expectation. Moreover, she did not mention this matter to plead for Qian Weiyan.
It's to lead to the next question.
"As for the heroes who deserve to be rewarded, can Sixth Brother make up his mind?"
"I was about to mention this to the eldest lady."
Li Jie said frankly: "As for the candidates, I prefer Wang Wenzhenggong (Wang Dan) and Zhongshu Ling Li Jilong."
When choosing between Wang Dan and Li Hang, Li Jie would certainly prefer Wang Dan.
As for the reason.
Lingzhou was lost when Li Hang was prime minister.
Although the responsibility for abandoning Lingzhou cannot be entirely attributed to Li Han, it cannot be separated from him.
In fact, the issue of whether to stick to Lingzhou can be traced back to the Taizong period.
In the fifth year of Chunhua of Taizong (994), Li Jiqian besieged Lingzhou for the first time. At that time, Taizong's attitude was very resolute.
Determined to fight against it, the troops were divided into five groups and drove directly to Xiazhou!
But the result of this battle was a small victory at first, but as time went by, Li Jiqian began to engage in guerrilla warfare.
The Dangxiang people mainly relied on cavalry, and could attack when advancing or defend when retreating. Li Jiqian always avoided fighting, which made Li Jilong, the general of the Song Army at that time, very distressed.
Lingzhou is located in the northwest, and all food and grass depend on the support and dispatch of the imperial court. The war lasted for two or three years, which put great pressure on logistics.
In the end, the battle ended in failure.
It was at this time that Song Taizong had the idea of abandoning Lingzhou.
However, Song Taizong's ability to control troops was not good, but he still had vision, and he knew the importance of Lingzhou very well.
As long as Lingzhou is in the hands of the imperial court, the party will have no room for external expansion.
So, in the third year of Zhidao (997), Song Taizong was ready to cause trouble again and attack Dangxiang.
Later, due to Song Taizong's health, the battle ended in failure, and Song Taizong died not long after.
At the time of the transition of imperial power, of course, what was ultimately wanted was the position of emperor.
At that time, Song Zhenzong was the crown prince who was personally conferred by Taizong and announced to the world, and he had been the crown prince for more than a year.
But the process of Song Zhenzong inheriting the throne was not smooth sailing.
In the patriarchal system, the eldest son inheritance system is the most basic rule, and Song Zhenzong was not the eldest son of Taizong, but the third son.
The eldest son Zhao Yuanzuo was the first to be established as the prince. Later, because of his sympathy for his uncle, King Zhao Tingmei of Qin, Taizong disliked him and deposed him as prince.
However, the deposed prince is the deposed prince. He is indeed the eldest son of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, and he did not die during the reign of Emperor Dao.
In addition, in the third year of Zhidao, the queen in the palace was Taizong's third wife, who was Li Jilong's sister.
The Li family had no children. Whether it was Zhenzong or Taizong's eldest son Zhao Yuanzuo, to her, they were all other people's children.
At the same time, she also sympathized with King Yuanzuo of Chu.
After all, Zhao Yuanzuo was deposed not because of moral issues, but because he sympathized with people he shouldn't have sympathized with.
Therefore, before Zhenzong ascended the throne, the great eunuch Wang Jien secretly conspired with Li Changling, the political advisor, and Hu Dan, the imperial eunuch, with the intention of making Yuanzuo, the deposed prince of Chu, the emperor.
Their conspiracy was approved by Empress Li.
Of course, they did not succeed in the end. Prime Minister Lu Duan insisted on carrying out Taizong's will and proclaimed Prince Zhao Heng as emperor.
Although the turmoil of plotting to support Chu Wang Yuanzuo was quickly put down, the aftermath was long-lasting.
It was not until half a year later, in July of the third year of Zhidao, that Song Zhenzong turned his attention to Lingzhou again.
As the saying goes, one emperor has one courtier. Within this six months, Zhenzong promoted several former ministers of Qiandi, and Li Zhi and Li Hang were transferred to participate in political affairs.
But the two of them are die-hard conservatives and insist on abandoning Lingzhou.
Although Lu Duan was a stickler, he misjudged Zhenzong's character. The cowardly Song Zhenzong did not have strong decisiveness.
Compared with Lu Duan, Li Zhi and Li Hang, who were obviously from Qiandi, knew Song Zhenzong better.
This time the battle over Lingzhou's abandonment ended with the conservatives winning.
Under Wang Yucheng's advice, although Zhenzong did not completely abandon Lingzhou, he gave Xiazhou, Suizhou, Yinzhou, Youzhou, and Jingzhou to Li Jiqian.
This kind of behavior is completely to support the enemy. Even the 'War God of the Song Dynasty' cannot do such stupid things.
The party members who obtained the territory of the Five States gained a great deal of strategic depth, and at the same time, they also laid the groundwork for the fall of Lingzhou.
In the first year of Xianping (998), Lu Duan asked himself to be dismissed as prime minister. Out of the basic principle of conflicting opinions, Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty worshiped Zhang Qixian and Li Hang as prime ministers at the same time.
The former was recommended by Lu Duan, and the latter was an old minister of Zhenzong's Qiandi.
Because Zhang Qixian, whom Lu Duan recommended as prime minister, naturally inherited Lu Duan's political ideas and advocated sticking to Lingzhou.
As for why he abandoned the main figure of the conservative faction, Li Han would certainly not agree to stick to it.
For this reason, the two factions launched a fierce confrontation.
It was not until four months later that the defenders gained the upper hand. Zhenzong issued an edict and dispatched 60,000 troops to support Lingzhou.
Then, by the time the reinforcements arrived, the body of Pei Ji, the magistrate of Lingzhou, had already gone cold.
At this point, Lingzhou was completely lost and fell into the hands of the party members.
There is no doubt that Song Zhenzong must bear the primary responsibility for the fall of Lingzhou. If it weren't for his cowardice, several ministers who came from Qiandi might not have advocated abandoning the defense.
The next responsible person is Li Hang.
If there had not been fierce opposition from the abandonment faction, the imperial court would not have missed the best opportunity for rescue.
The battle situation is changing rapidly. If it is delayed for four days, let alone four months, a victory may turn into a huge defeat.
On the other side, when Liu E learned that Li Jie planned to exclude Li Hang, she couldn't help but have some doubts in her heart.
Today's second prime minister was Li Hang's son-in-law, and Li Wei, the academician of the Academy of Sciences, was Li Hang's younger brother.
If the officials really eliminate Li Hang, the two people will probably be resentful.
One is the prime minister, and the other is a Hanlin bachelor known as the 'inner prime minister'. The appeal of both cannot be underestimated.
Seeing Liu E falling into hesitation, Li Jie couldn't help but give a little reminder.
"My eldest empress, Mr. Wang, a few days ago..."
That's it. Even if Li Jie didn't say anything else, Liu E knew that she could use this matter to give Wang Zeng a beating.
"That's fine."
"Just follow Brother Six's wishes."
Liu E thought for a while and finally agreed. The facts were just as the officials said, Wang Zeng's previous behavior had indeed crossed the line.