Wang just came out of the palace and ran directly back to Sheng Mansion, where he saw a large family waiting for him.
Sheng Hong, Lin Sushuang, Sheng Changbai's family of three, and Mrs. Sheng.
Of course, there is also the person who Wang Gang has missed for a year.
Hai Chaoyun stood at the far side, holding a child in his arms.
Wang Gang slowly walked towards Hai Chaoyun, and when he saw the infant child, his mood calmed down.
"Officer, I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a son." Hai Chaoyun said guiltily.
Wang Gang took his wife and children into his arms and said, "I am the one who should say I'm sorry. I can't be with you during the delivery."
In this era, when a woman gives birth to a child, she has to go through hell. Wang Gang feels very guilty that he cannot stay with his wife.
The couple hugged each other and felt each other like never before, but the child in the middle couldn't bear it and started crying.
As soon as the child cried, Wang Gang and Hai Chaoyun were forced to separate and coax the child first.
"My daughter looks really like me." Wang Gang teased the child and smiled happily.
"Has the child been named yet?" Wang Gang asked.
Hai Chaoyun said: "Dad gave me a nickname, Sister Shu, and said I will wait for you to pick up the name when you come back."
Wang Gang looked at Sheng Hong and said, "Father, you are the child's grandfather, so you should choose the child's name!"
Sheng Hong was very pleased to see that Wang Gang had become famous and respected his father even after being granted the title of Duke.
"How about naming the child Zi Qiao? Sheng Zi Qiao. Zi means vigorous growth and self-improvement, and buckwheat means wheat.
I asked someone to calculate the child's horoscope, and it was said that she lacked wood in her life, and the buckwheat that grew vigorously was the buckwheat."
Wang Gang looked at his daughter and said with a smile: "Xiao Ziqiao, do you like this name?"
The child broke down in tears and smiled happily. He seemed to like this name very much.
After Wang Gang returned home, the Sheng family held a family banquet. Almost all the Sheng family members arrived, except the queen Sheng Minglan.
The eldest Sheng Hualan, the fourth eldest Sheng Molan, and the fifth eldest Sheng Rulan all took their husbands home and wanted to have a good relationship with Wang Gang.
Hualan's husband is the second son of the Earl's Palace, and now he holds a small official position in the Forbidden Army. Everyone knows about the relationship between Wang Gang and Gu Tingye, the commander of the Forbidden Army.
Although Mo Lan's husband Liang Han is also the legitimate son of the Earl's Palace, he is a lustful person with no real talent and knowledge, and has been living his life.
On the contrary, Rulan's husband Wen Yanjing was from the worst family background, but he was the best among the three sons-in-law.
Wen Yanjing is a second-ranked Jinshi. Although he was born in poverty, he is very capable and studious. With the help of the Sheng family, he is now a deacon of the Ministry of Personnel. Although his official position is small, his future is promising.
During the family dinner, Wang Gang became the protagonist, and even Sheng Hong, the head of the Sheng family, gave way to his son.
As Wang Gang's official position and title increased, his status in the Sheng family changed again, and he decided to become the actual head of the Sheng family.
After the family banquet, the Qingguo Duke's Mansion given by the official Zhao Xu was also completed, located next to Gu Tingye's Ningyuan Marquis Mansion.
After Wang Gang moved into the Duke's Mansion, he began to speak in simple terms and act in a low-key manner.
As the Minister of War, he actually had no military power. Except for the 30,000 Sheng family troops who had been with him through life and death, and were organized into militia by him, he could not deploy the Song army.
As for the negotiations with Xixia, Wang Gang is also the mascot, and the chief negotiator is Prime Minister Han.
This time Xixia was willing to bow its head and become its vassal, and the Song Dynasty was not polite and directly made conditions to Emperor Xia, paying tribute and making contributions every year.
In the past, the Song Dynasty paid annual coins to Xixia, but now in turn, Xixia must pay tribute to the Song Dynasty 300,000 silver and 10,000 high-quality war horses every year.
The 10,000 war horses were requested by Wang Gang, and both the officials and Prime Minister Han agreed.
Although the war in the northwest is over, Daliao has not yet been resolved.
Because the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun was in the hands of Daliao, the Song Dynasty lost the best land for raising horses, causing the cavalry to always be inferior to Daliao.
Xixia's Liangzhou War is the best in the world. If it weren't for the flying arrows this time, the outcome of the Song-Xia war is unknown.
Wang Gang took a fancy to Liangzhou's war horses in order to deal with Daliao in the future.
The Xixia Kingdom is now frightened by the Song Dynasty and has lost two to three hundred thousand troops. It is impossible to achieve anything in the short term.
However, Daliao did not suffer any losses this time. Although it finally withdrew its troops, Song Dynasty also paid a price of 300,000 years old coins. This loss will naturally have to be recovered from Xixia.
The negotiations between the two countries lasted for three months. In Wang Gang's view, they were just bargaining.
Finally, Xixia paid an annual tribute of 200,000 taels of silver and 7,000 Liangzhou horses to the Song Dynasty.
After the peace talks ended, Wang Gang returned to the Ministry of War to continue his salty life. Apart from going to court to listen to politics, his only job was to develop firearms.
After the official Zhao Xu realized the power of firearms, he increased the funding for firearms research by the Ministry of War and put Wang Gang in charge of all of it, but he was not allowed to touch the military power.
Wang Gang was happy to be pure and never participated in major court affairs, because he knew that there would be big trouble in the court next.
According to the historical process, after the official Zhao Xu came to the throne, he felt the seriousness of land annexation in the Song Dynasty, so he summoned Wang Anshi to Beijing to implement the reform, which was known as the "Xining Reform" in history.
During the reform process, Zhao Xu used the power of his monarchy to ensure the implementation of a series of new laws, but at the same time he also offended many conservatives.
In the end, the reform faction and the conservative faction fought fiercely. The reform faction headed by Wang Anshi finally lost to the conservative faction headed by Sima Guang, making the reform effort in vain.
The representative of the conservative faction is Sima Guang, who likes to smash vats.
It can be said that the next few years will be the most chaotic years for the imperial court, and Wang Gang has no intention of getting involved.
It was not that he did not want to reform the Song Dynasty, but he felt that if Zhao Xu was in power for one day, the reform would be unlikely to succeed.
The reason why Sima Guang's conservative faction won the final victory was ultimately due to Zhao Xu's final wavering.
Reform has always been accompanied by controversy. Countries in history that have truly succeeded in reform have always had a king with a firm will.
It would be useless if Shang Yang could not meet Qin Xiaogong.
It's a pity that Song Shenzong Zhao Xu is far from comparable to Qin Xiaogong.
Wang Gang also reminded the Sheng family not to get involved in the fight between the reformists and the conservatives, especially Queen Sheng Minglan. Her eldest son had been crowned prince, and she only wanted stability in the future.
Time flies by more than ten years, and the Song Dynasty is in an uproar due to reforms. On the contrary, Xixia has recovered after ten years of recuperation.
The British father had long since retired and returned to his hometown, and the northwest military affairs of Zhao Xu were also handed over to a trustworthy man named Jiao Mang.
This Jiao Mang had never fought in many tough battles, he was just promoted through mixed seniority, and he was reused because of his loyalty to Zhao Xu.
Wang Gang heard that Jiao Mang started to clean up the direct descendants of the British Duke as soon as he arrived in the northwest, and almost caused a big chaos. Later, it was Zhao Xu who asked the British Duke to come forward to appease his old subordinates, so that they would not mutiny.
The British Duke's direct lineage could not survive in the northwest, so Wang Gang used his authority as Minister of War to transfer people to Gu Tingye's forbidden army.
As a result, the Central Forbidden Army of the Song Dynasty became more and more capable of fighting, while the border troops became mere showpieces.
The consequence was that more than ten years later, Xixia came back with hundreds of thousands of troops, unilaterally broke the contract and declared war on the Song Dynasty.
As the name suggests, the Jiao Mang people thought that with the flying arrows in their hands, they could easily defeat Xixia and achieve Wang Gang's achievements.
It's a pity that Xixia had studied the Song Dynasty for ten years and had long been aware of the flaws of firearms. They launched an attack on a rainy night, which made Jiao Mang doubt his life.
When the news of the defeat in the northwest reached Bianjing, Zhao Xu immediately vomited a large mouthful of blood, and everyone in the court was shocked.
When Wang Gang received the news, he immediately entered the palace and met Sheng Minglan first.
"Third brother, the official is vomiting blood, and the imperial doctor is still treating him." Sheng Minglan was a little panicked and couldn't grasp the point of her words.
"Don't worry, the imperial physician has superb medical skills and everything will be fine. You will immediately issue an edict in the name of the queen and stabilize the court situation first." Wang Gang said calmly.
"I'll make arrangements right away. Do you want the prince to appease the courtiers?" Sheng Minglan asked.
"Absolutely not." Wang Gang flatly refused: "The prince doesn't have to do anything now, just stay in front of the official's hospital bed, and don't have contact with any courtiers."
Sheng Minglan immediately understood what Wang Gang meant.
The emperor is seriously ill and the prince's excessive contact with ministers will arouse the emperor's suspicion.
The only thing the prince has to do at this time is to be a dutiful son and secure his seat first.
After all, the emperor had more than one son, and they all stared eagerly at that seat, waiting for the prince to make a mistake.
Sheng Minglan had been the queen for more than ten years and was very knowledgeable about matters deep in the palace. She immediately followed Wang Gang's instructions and asked her son to stay in front of Zhao Xu's hospital bed, even if she pretended to be worried.
When Zhao Xu woke up and saw the prince for the first time, he was indeed comforted by Lao Huai, and then immediately recruited Wang Gang and Sima Guang into the palace.
When Wang Gang saw Zhao Xu, he found that his hall was darkened but his face was unusually rosy, which was a sign that he was returning to his former glory.
"Chang Feng, come here quickly." Zhao Xu waved to Wang Gang, then took Prince Zhao Yan's hand and placed it in Wang Gang's hand.
"Prince, I'm afraid I can't support the power of the Song Dynasty. From now on, you should listen to your uncle's advice more." Zhao Xu said weakly.
