Han Rui was speechless for a moment, then continued, "Ambition is not limited by age. Back then, Lord Kou was Vice Minister of State Affairs at the age of 32, and was appointed Co-Minister of the Secretariat at the age of 41. Eleventh Brother's talent is no less than Lord Kou's."

"hehe."

Han Qi smiled and then said, "Then why do you think I am the only one to be in charge of the northwest?"

"Of course the government values ​​it."

"No, this just shows how difficult it is for me to get into the Constitutional Council."

"Why?"

Han Rui was very puzzled.

Han Qi explained, "The war won't be settled overnight. The northwest is remote, and the marching and fighting alone could take months. Zhao Yuanhao is no fool, and if he stands still and lets you attack, if it drags on for too long, I'm afraid the Constitutional Council will have already been re-elected."

"this"

Han Rui was stunned for a moment, then said dejectedly, "Looks like I won't be able to get in this year."

"Not necessarily."

"Brother Eleven, could it be?"

"Who wouldn't want to be prime minister? Especially since I'm holding such a powerful position as the Vice-Minister of the Constitutional Court, I naturally have the same ambition."

Han Qi raised his head and looked at Han Rui, chuckled and said: "But Fourteenth Brother, sometimes, fighting is not fighting, and not fighting is fighting. You have to understand this principle."

“To fight is not to fight, and not to fight is to fight?”

Han Rui was confused.

What does it mean?

Han Qi smiled but said nothing.

In fact, his family had already been in-laws with the Wang Zeng family, the Lu Yijian family, and the Jia Changchao family through marriage.

For example, Han Qi's eldest son married the granddaughter of Lu Yijian, the only son of his brother Han Qu from the same mother married the granddaughter of Wang Zeng, and the second son of his eldest brother who died early married the daughter of Jia Changfu, the cousin of Jia Changchao.

But he had no intention of using these connections in this matter, nor did he have the slightest intention of smoothing the way and being recommended by the prime ministers.

You have to know that the last election relied on nominations from the prime ministers. Although Jiang Tang was a neutral party and entered the Constitutional Council, his entry was the result of a compromise between various forces.

Therefore, many heads of first-level institutions in Bianliang had to become disciples of the prime ministers in order to gain that crucial step.

However, although Han Qi was their son-in-law, he often disagreed with Lu Yijian and others in political views. In recent years, he has supported Fan Zhongyan's reforms.

In this case, it seems that his only possibility is to be nominated by Fan Zhongyan.

But at this level, in the officialdom, it is not the case that whoever you support is your supporter. He is just targeting the matter, not the person. He believes that Fan Zhongyan's reforms are beneficial to the country, so his personal relationship with Fan Zhongyan is the same.

Han Qi could see for himself that although he was related to the three prime ministers, they had different political opinions. Although he shared the same political opinions as Fan Zhongyan, his relationship with Fan Zhongyan was such that it was still unknown whether he could get his nomination.

Therefore, Han Qi understood that unless he personally visited Lü Yijian, who was still alive, or asked someone to seek connections with Jia Changchao and Fan Zhongyan, it would be difficult to say whether he could be nominated.

In this situation, Han Qi could not take the initiative. He chose to do his own thing. As long as everything went well, what was his would definitely not escape.

In the afternoon, Han Qi summoned his deputies Yang Xie, Zhang Kang, Zhang Fangping and others to hold a meeting.

It didn't take long for everyone to arrive.

At this time, everyone was sitting in a row in the house in the backyard of the government office.

Han Qi sat in the main seat, with a large number of military documents and maps of various places on the table in front of him.

After everyone was present, he spoke, "Everyone, we have been in the Northwest for over a month. When we set out this time, everyone has reviewed the documents from the Constitutional Council."

"The strategic mission assigned by the Constitutional Court this time isn't for us to destroy Western Xia, but to drive Zhao Yuanhao out of Qingtang and Zhuolaosinan. This clearly shows that the imperial court doesn't yet want to annex Western Xia, or perhaps it's that the imperial court doesn't want to get involved in a large-scale war."

Yang Xie said.

"Um."

Han Qi nodded. "The Song Dynasty is now thriving and far ahead. It's only a matter of time before our national strength surpasses that of Liao and Xia. There's no need to get entangled with them now."

Zhang Fangping asked, "In that case, does this mean we don't need to mobilize all of Shaanxi to invade Xixia?"

"I don't think so. Since the court has assigned us a task, we must complete it, and we must even exceed it."

Zhang Kang was anxious and said quickly, "Sir, I think this matter cannot be abandoned here. We must at least crush the Western Xia to let the world know that the powerful Song Dynasty cannot be violated."

Han Qi smiled. Although Zhang Kang was a Jinshi, his promotion depended on marching and fighting. Now he was also the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, so he must want to fight and win merit.

It can be said that as a civil servant, Zhang Kang now represents the interests of the military and will definitely advocate a strategy of launching a large-scale attack on Western Xia.

This point coincides with his opinion.

Because at least no one knows yet that Han Qi is actually a staunch advocate of war, so he must be on Zhang Kang's side.

However, the tendency must not be too obvious, so Han Qi pondered for a moment and said, "You two both have a point. We can't destroy Xixia, but we can't give up just yet. If that's the case, we can split our forces into two groups."

"oh?"

Everyone hurriedly asked, "What's your plan, sir?"

"We can feint an attack on Xixia's Xingqing Prefecture, attacking Wei to save Zhao. We can also launch a massive attack on Qingtang, Zhuolao, and Nan to drive out Yuan Hao's troops."

Han Qi said.

Zhang Kang rolled his eyes. This was very similar to the strategy Fan Zhongyan had originally planned.

When Li Yuanhao marched south, Fan Zhongyan focused on defense in the west, and sent his light cavalry to the east to attack Xingqing Prefecture, killing, burning and looting along the way, causing heavy losses to Western Xia.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!