At the eleventh hour, important officials from the two governments rushed to the palace.
More than ten years have passed, and the courtiers have already been rotated. Five years ago, Mr. Kou Zhun died in the capital.
In order to highlight Kou Zhun's achievements, Li Jie not only buried Kou Zhun with royal courtesy, but also gave him the posthumous title of "Wen Zheng".
During the Tang Dynasty, the highest honor for a civil servant after his death was the posthumous title of 'Wenzhen'. In the nearly three hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, only six people could receive the posthumous title of 'Wenzhen'.
However, in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Renzong era, in order to avoid taboo, "Wenzhen" was changed to "Wenzheng".
(Zhao Zhen, Zhen, taboo)
As of today, more than 70 years after the founding of the Song Dynasty, the only civil servants who have been awarded the title of "Wenzheng" are Li Fang and Wang Dan.
Kou Zhun is the third person!
Of course, compared to Li Fang and Wang Dan, Kou Zhun's posthumous glory was higher. After all, Kou Zhun was the first civil servant to be buried with the rites of a prince.
In addition to Kou Zhun, Wang Qinruo, Ding Wei and other senior ministers also passed away one after another.
Among the important ministers of the previous generation, only Wang Zeng and Li Di are still alive. However, they are both very young and have already retreated to the second line, far away from the center of power.
Today, the prime minister of the imperial court is Lu Yijian, the second prime minister is Zhang Dexiang, and the political advisors are Fan Zhongyan and Han Yi.
Over at the Privy Council, the Privy Councilor is Wang Deyong. The previous Privy Councilor, Cao Wei, died of illness four years ago.
(PS: Cao Wei died a little later in the book. Cao Wei in history was around 1030, the eighth year of Tiansheng)
After Cao Wei's death, Wang Deyong naturally took over the post of Privy Councilor.
Li Jie's reign was completely different from the historical Renzong period. The control of military institutions such as the Privy Council was always in the hands of military officials.
Of course, civil servants also play a role.
Generally speaking, at least one civil servant will be retained among the deputies of the Privy Council.
For example, the current Deputy Privy Councilor Feng Yuan is an out-and-out civil servant.
In fact, from Feng Yuan's perspective, he himself is not willing to serve in the Privy Council.
Firstly, he is not particularly knowledgeable about military affairs. Secondly, as a civil servant, his position in the Privy Council is somewhat embarrassing.
But, there is no way, who would let this be His Majesty’s will?
Not only did he serve as a mascot in the Privy Council, Lu Yijian served as one, Zhang Dexiang served as one, and Fan Zhongyan also served as one.
He is not the special one.
After a while, the whip cracked!
"The Holy Spirit has arrived!"
After hearing this, all the ministers stood up one after another and bowed towards the imperial platform with respectful expressions.
"Welcome Your Majesty!"
"Holy Holy Gong!"
"flat."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
After a brief ceremony, all the ministers took their seats one after another.
More than ten years have passed, and Li Jie is approaching his thirties. Although his appearance is already very young, he seems to have grown a beard.
When in town, do as the Romans do.
"What do you think of the Khitan's request for peace?"
Today, the important ministers of the two governments were summoned to the Jiangwu Hall for a meeting, mainly for two things. The first one was the Khitan's request for peace.
More than a month ago, Di Qing defeated the Khitan army and invaded Dading Mansion in the central capital of Khitan. Khitan Queen Mother Xiao Yujin and Khitan Emperor Yelu Zongzhen were both captured alive by the army led by Di Qing.
Although the Song army almost defeated the Khitan army with a crushing force, the pioneer Di Qing still became famous all over the world.
The battle to capture the Khitan emperor and queen mother alive was almost a battle to destroy the country.
Di Qing, how can he not be famous all over the world?
Moreover, at this time, the Song Dynasty did not emphasize literature over military affairs, and the status of military men was already on par with that of civil servants.
Especially in the eyes of merchants engaged in maritime trade, the reputation of warriors exceeded that of civil servants.
After all, the great reputation of the Song Dynasty overseas was achieved by these military ministers fighting with real swords and guns.
Civil servants rule the world, and military ministers expand the territory. There is no superiority between the two sides, they just have different responsibilities.
After Xiao Yujin and Yelu Zongzhen were captured alive, they immediately sent an imperial edict to the Song Dynasty to seek peace, even though they were already prisoners.
But the Khitan still has some foundation.
Moreover, with the current productivity of the Song Dynasty, even if it nominally occupied Khitan, it would not be able to actually rule it.
Khitan is famous for its vast territory and sparsely populated areas. Today, most of the territory that Khitan belongs to is mainly grassland.
Even if the Song Dynasty occupied it, it would not be able to spare people to develop it.
What's more, the cost of developing these areas is also very high.
There is absolutely no need for the Song Dynasty to occupy them all.
According to Li Jie's idea, the Khitan only needed to remove its imperial title, profess tribulation to the Song Dynasty, and become a vassal state of the Song Dynasty.
Of course, the Song Dynasty could take over mature areas with a certain foundation, such as Shangjing (Linhuang, near today's Balinzuo Banner in Inner Mongolia) and Tokyo (Liaoyang Prefecture, near today's Shenyang).
As for the areas further north, Li Jie really has no interest in occupying them.
Tribes like the Blackwater Jurchens should be left to the Khitans to attack.
Besides exploiting these small tribes, what else can the Khitans do?
Of course, wherever you come from, you will go back.
The vast grassland was enough to accommodate the Khitan people. In the future, they could raise cattle, sheep, and horses for the Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, especially the people near Bianliang, their favorite food was mutton.
No sheep can make it out of Kaifeng alive!
If the Khitan people could find their niche and work as shepherds for the Song Dynasty, the upper class Khitan nobles would still be able to live a decent life.
A few moments.
As the current prime minister, Lu Yijian was the first to express his opinion.
"I think that all the territory south of Huanglong Mansion (near present-day Changchun) can be included in our territory."
It must be said that Lu Yijian had a huge appetite and could kill most of the Khitans with just one mouthful.
All the territories south of Huanglong Mansion?
That is the best area in Khitan.
If it is really won, the Khitan nobles may have no choice but to drink from the northwest wind in the future.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Yijian explained why he wanted this area.
A moment later, as soon as Lu Yijian finished expressing his opinion, Fan Zhongyan directly opposed him.
"I don't agree with Prime Minister Lu's suggestion."
"The Huanglong Prefecture area has mixed ethnic groups and is too far away from BJ (Jin Prefecture was renamed BJ a few years ago). The cost of developing this area is too high."
Fan Zhongyan disagreed with Lu Yijian's opinion, not because of personal grudges. He simply felt that input and output did not match.
In his view, all he needs to do is capture the territory around the Bohai Bay.
The Bohai Bay is a natural harbor, and Suzhou (now Dalian) in the Liao Dynasty is across the sea from Dengzhou, and the distance from Suzhou in the Liao Dynasty to Goryeo is even closer.
This arrangement of Liao Kingdom Suzhou - Goryeo and Dengzhou - Japanese Kingdom is more conducive to the development of maritime trade.
"Um."
After listening to Fan Zhongyan's remarks, Li Jie nodded slightly.
"What Lu Qing and Fan Qing said are all for the sake of the country. What do you think of them?"
Hearing this, the ministers in the audience immediately understood that the officials were asking them to take sides.