It’s all in the longevity!

The carriage slowly drove into Bianliang City and stopped outside the north gate of the imperial palace.

Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun got off the carriage. Inside the Xuanwu Gate, Zhao Zhen was already standing in the wind and snow waiting.

He was not wearing a military coat. Instead, he wore a crimson dragon robe inside and a cotton cloak outside with a hood on top to keep out all the wind and snow.

Even so, seeing this, Fan Zhongyan hurried forward quickly, approached Zhao Zhen, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, I am sorry for the trouble. How could you come here in person to wait for me? The wind and snow are too strong here. It's better to return to the palace quickly to avoid catching a cold."

Zhao Zhen smiled and took his hand, patted it gently, and said, "You have made great contributions to the Song Dynasty. Not to mention that I will personally welcome you, even if I lead all the civil and military officials to greet you outside the city, it would be the right thing to do."

He wanted to, but was stopped by the officials.

In fact, the emperors of the Song Dynasty were not forbidden to leave the palace. For example, the brothers Zhao Kuang and Zhao Guangyi often sneaked out, and even took a carriage to the homes of military generals and ministers in the middle of the night to drink.

Once, Zhao Guangyi went to drink with a founding general. He drank too much in the middle of the night and drove drunk. He had a car accident because there were too many illegal buildings in Bianliang City. The next day, he angrily demanded to rectify the illegal buildings in Kaifeng Prefecture, but his demand was in vain due to opposition from the people.

But during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, this method of sneaking out was no longer acceptable. One had to have a legitimate reason, or be taken to the front lines by ministers, such as visiting tombs, offering sacrifices, enthroning gods, or fighting at the front lines in Chanzhou.

Whenever Emperor Zhenzong of Song went out, the ceremony was very grand. According to historical records such as "Zizhi Tongjian Continued" and "History of Song Dynasty", the number of his ceremonial guards, carriages, and guards alone exceeded 10,000, including a large number of officials accompanying him.

Then there are the expenses of food, clothing, housing, transportation, and various other things for these people. Sometimes they also have to meet with meritorious officials to reward them, which may be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of strings of cash at a time, and the money is spent like water.

So during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the officials persuaded him that it would cost too much for the national treasury if the emperor left the palace once, and there was no need to waste such money and deplete the national treasury. As a result, Zhao Zhen was emperor for forty-one years and never left the palace, which is a strange thing.

Fan Zhongyan said gratefully: "The emperor's health is the most important thing."

"Okay, let's go in first."

Zhao Zhen waved his hand.

The group of people headed towards the Chuigong Hall in a mighty procession.

Today, to welcome Fan Zhongyan's return, all civil and military officials are present. The Council of Political Affairs takes them outside the city to welcome him. Zhao Zhen himself welcomes him at the palace gate, which can be said to have given Fan Zhongyan great face.

A large group of one or two hundred people, including censors, imperial censors, ministers, vice ministers, pushes, secretaries, doctors, secretaries of the Secretariat, scholars of the academies, cabinets, palaces, direct scholars, waiting officials, editors, and direct cabinets, accompanied Zhao Zhen and his companions into the palace.

At the front of the team were naturally Zhao Zhen, Fan Zhongyan, Zhao Jun, Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Yan Shu, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Sheng Du and others, followed by the ministers of various departments. Everyone lined up in order according to the queue.

Fan Zhongyan naturally stood among the prime ministers of the Political System Council. Although his position was the governor of Hebei Road, don't forget that he also had the title of alternate prime minister of the Political System Council.

Therefore, his position is higher than that of a deputy prime minister.

At this moment, Zhao Zhen was sitting on the dragon throne, full of pride. After all the officials had arrived, the ministers below shouted, "Long live the emperor, long live the emperor! Long live the emperor!"

In fact, people did not usually shout like this in the Song Dynasty, although it was from the Song Dynasty that "Wansui" became exclusive to the emperor.

When Zhao Kuang rebelled at Chenqiaoyi, he was given the title of "Long Live the Ancestor" by the soldiers: "Someone put a yellow robe on the body of Taizu, and everyone knelt down and shouted "Long Live the Ancestor".

So although Zhao Kuang did not directly issue an edict to make the title "Long Live the Emperor" exclusive to himself, from then on it could only be used by the emperor alone.

For example, Cao Ne, the nephew of Cao Liyong, a great general of the Northern Song Dynasty, got drunk one day and asked people to shout "Long live the emperor". He was reported and beaten to death.

"The Biography of Kou Zhun" also records that when Kou Zhun went out, people shouted "Long live the emperor", so he was immediately removed from the post of co-director of the Privy Council and demoted to Qingzhou Prefecture.

From then on until the Ming and Qing dynasties, the title of "Wansui" was extremely respected, and the emperor also became "Wansui" Lord.

But such cheers are rare.

However, today all the officials couldn't help but shout like this. There was someone taking the lead, and then everyone shouted together. It was really spectacular.

It was precisely because of these two major wars and the diplomatic victory that it was the first time since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty that a beautiful comeback was won, which made people proud. Except for the officials who were jealous of Fan Zhongyan, everyone else was overjoyed.

"Everyone, please stand up!"

Zhao Zhen was overjoyed to see this. He looked around at everyone and said, "Although the past few years have been turbulent, I am fortunate to have you gentlemen, including Mr. Fan, who have defeated Yuan Hao in the west and Zong Zhen in the north, demonstrating the majesty of our Great Song."

"Your Majesty, thank you for your praise. If it weren't for your majesty's strategic planning and strategic planning behind the scenes, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Yuan Hao and Zong Zhen on the battlefield. This is all thanks to your majesty's wisdom and the protection of Taizu and Taizong."

Of course, Fan Zhongyan could not take all the credit, so he pushed it all to Zhao Zhen, and by the way, he did not forget to praise Zhao Kuang and Zhao Guangyi who had died long ago.

Anyway, no matter whether others believe it or not, the ministers must believe it, even if they don’t.

joke.

Fan Zhongyan's contributions are so great now that he is almost at the point where there is no more title to be given. Although he is a civil servant, the civil service group will not allow such an awesome person to come out, so of course he has to be suppressed.

At that time, ministers from various departments such as Cheng Lin, Chen Zhizhong, Zhang Dexiang, Du Yan, Li Ruogu, Jia Changchao, Zheng Jian, Ye Qingchen, Hu Su, Han Ju and others came forward to make statements.

"Your Majesty sent out elite troops and powerful generals, who braved the frontiers and conquered the four directions with their might. This is called the work of heaven and man. It is said that this is the reason why heaven is heaven."

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