Therefore, apart from working, Zhao Zhen usually lived in the wooden house in the back garden. Even the concubines had moved to the back garden and some wooden palaces had been rebuilt.
At this moment, everyone was seated separately. Zhao Zhen sat in a chair behind the desk, visibly relieved. He glanced at Lü Yijian with surprise and was the first to speak: "Thanks to Lü Gong for speaking out for justice this time. Otherwise, due to the criticism from both the court and the public, I'm afraid Mr. Fan would not be able to stay in the northwest any longer."
"I am not speaking for Fan Zhongyan out of any selfish motive, but he really needs to stay in the northwest and stabilize the situation."
Lu Yijian said calmly, "The war in the northwest is going smoothly now. We defeated Yuan Hao in one battle. Although Yuan Hao was forced to beg for mercy, this does not mean that the war in the northwest is over."
"Cough cough cough."
Wang Zeng coughed twice. Since he had survived his illness last year, he felt like he had escaped a near-death experience and recovered. Naturally, he returned to work at the Constitutional Yuan.
However, he still suffered from illness and looked much older.
He glanced at Lu Yijian. Everyone knew that Old Lu spoke nicely, but in fact he was still trying to win the favor of the emperor and a reputation for magnanimity.
After all, Fan Zhongyan had been so against Lu Yijian in the past, but Lu Yijian not only recommended Fan Zhongyan to go to the northwest, but also spoke up and defended Fan Zhongyan at such a critical moment. Wouldn't the civil and military officials in the court praise him for being a tolerant prime minister?
So before the emperor could praise Lu Yijian, he interrupted him.
Zhao Zhen was indeed drawn to Wang Zeng's cough. Before he could praise Old Man Lu, he asked with concern, "How is Prime Minister Wang doing now?"
"Thank you, sir. I feel much better now."
Wang Zeng responded.
Lu Yijian glanced at Wang Zeng with dissatisfaction, then said indifferently, "If you are unwell, you should go home and recuperate."
"Thank you for your concern. My old bones can still hold on."
Wang Zeng replied in a neither-so-amusing tone.
The two old men just love to argue with each other.
In fact, after Lu Yijian was dismissed from his position as prime minister for the first time, it was Wang Zeng who recommended him to serve as prime minister again.
But before Zhao Jun came, the two sides had conflicts because of Lu Yijian's autocratic and tyrannical behavior.
Before Zhao Jun came, although the two sides had reached a certain strategic alliance for a period of time, they soon became antagonistic again.
The reason is that Zhao Jun's arrival actually contributed to the strengthening of the prime minister's power.
Both of them are power-hungry people, and it is impossible for Zhao Jun to take care of everything, so naturally most of the governance power falls into their hands.
The result was that the two sides once again confronted each other for power and profit.
In fact, this phenomenon was something Zhao Zhen was happy to see. After all, Zhao Zhen did not want all his subordinates to be united. Therefore, he did not mediate, which deepened the conflict between the two sides.
Especially in the past two years when Zhao Jun traveled around the world, the two of them had many conflicts.
But now, when they were discussing business, Zhao Zhen saw that the two seemed about to start fighting again, so he quickly interrupted and said, "Okay, regarding the proposal made at court this morning to transfer Fan Qing back and reduce the Northwest's food and salary expenditures, what do you think?"
"Your Majesty, I believe that the officials still haven't grasped the key point of this matter."
Wang Zeng said immediately.
"oh?"
Zhao Zhen wondered, "What's the point?"
Wang Zeng said: "All the officials only saw Yuan Hao begging for mercy after his defeat, while Fan Zhongyan held great power, but they did not see that Yuan Hao might only be acting as a temporary measure and was very likely to make a comeback."
"Simply put, the officials believed whatever Yuan Hao said. Furthermore, they only cared about Fan Zhongyan's power, but ignored the possibility that Yuan Hao might deceive us. If we transferred Fan Zhongyan away and he attacked again, there would be a disaster in the northwest."
Lü Yijian followed up, saying, "The Western bandits are cunning, and Yuan Hao is fickle. We must be on guard."
"And the Liao Kingdom."
Yan Shu also said: "Thanks to the power of grenades, Yuan Hao was defeated. He had witnessed the power of grenades with his own eyes. It was impossible for him not to inform the Liao Kingdom of this incident, so that the Liao Kingdom would be vigilant and take precautions against us. Although the Liao Kingdom did not fight with us in history, it is hard to say what will happen after this incident."
It must be said that these three people are indeed shrewd people. In fact, the officials of the Song Dynasty cannot be said to be all naive fools, but sometimes they are more wary of their own people than foreigners. After all, the lessons learned from the Tang Dynasty made them overly fearful.
It can only be said that the officials in the court who chose to believe Li Yuanhao instead of Fan Zhongyan were not wrong.
If they had trusted Li Yuanhao wrongly, at most they would have suffered a defeat in the northwest. But if they had trusted Fan Zhongyan wrongly, with hundreds of thousands of troops in the northwest, the country would have been destroyed.
But thanks to Zhao Jun, these people present knew that Fan Zhongyan was loyal, so they could boldly use him. Therefore, the information gap between the two sides has led to the difference in opinions between the civil and military officials in the court and the prime ministers in the Council of Political Affairs.
What they see is naturally completely different.
Zhao Zhen felt that what everyone said made sense. He nodded after pondering for a moment, saying, "Well, indeed. If I were Yuan Hao, I would definitely inform Yelu Zongzhen about the grenade. Yelu Zongzhen wouldn't be so foolish as to not be aware that the Song Dynasty possessed such a weapon."
"By then, the Liao Kingdom will most likely march south, and the western bandit Yuan Hao will certainly respond. The Song Dynasty will then be faced with a two-front war. I believe it is not appropriate to transfer Fan Zhongyan back at this time. At most, he should be transferred to Hebei."
Lu Yijian said.
"Hmm"
After some thought, Zhao Zhen agreed, "My eldest grandson is still in the northwest. He submitted a petition a while ago and should be back by the end of this year or next year. I'll ask for his opinion then."
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