Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

It seemed that with the marriage of Rulan and Minglan, the Sheng family felt that time suddenly passed faster.

Rulan's husband's family is far away from the capital, but it is a good story that the three of them, father and son, were on the list in the same year. Anyway, Sheng Hong thinks that Zhang Zhe, the fourth son-in-law, is the person who satisfies him most besides Shi Ying.

Although a scholar he favored, Wen Yanjing, wanted to cause trouble in the Sheng family during this period, after all, Han and Liu controlled the Sheng family strictly, and Wen Yanjing did not find an opportunity to cause trouble. So after Sheng Hong politely asked him to leave, the matter was over.

As for the fact that Minglan had just been engaged by Duke Qi's Mansion, but Princess Pingning almost broke off the engagement because Qi Heng had a good ranking, it didn't come to light after all. Minglan still married him happily, and her relationship with Qi Heng became even closer because Princess Pingning would find fault with him from time to time.

Because of his contribution in saving the emperor, Gu Tingye was finally granted an official position after Zhao Ceying came to power. Now he could only hold on to Zhao Ceying, so he even used his own marriage to help Zhao Ceying win over court officials, and finally married Yu Yanran, who was from the family of Old Master Yu.

However, even though Yu Yanran was too docile, Xiao Qinshi did not dare to torture her too much. After all, Gu Tingye had his own mansion granted by the emperor, and the cheap mother-in-law and daughter-in-law could not meet often. Moreover, Gu Tingyu, who had been making trouble all the time, could not do it anymore because of his health. He also wanted Gu Tingye to help take care of his only daughter, Rong Jie'er. So even though he did not get the title of Ningyuan Marquis during his lifetime, he had to bow to Gu Tingye before his death.

But Gu Tingyu was unwilling to give in, and he subsequently instigated Xiao Qin. The reason why he did not choose Gu Tingwei was because he could see that Gu Tingwei was a person who would produce good results out of bad ones. Growing up in such a complicated environment, he actually sincerely hoped that the three brothers could live in harmony, and he had never even thought about the title of Ningyuan Marquis.

The new emperor Zhao Ceying is not the previous emperor, nor is he his biological father Zhao Zongquan. He really values ​​Gu Tingye and wants to show favor to Gu Tingye out of genuine consideration for Gu Tingye.

So after asking Gu Tingye about the title of Ningyuan Marquis, Zhao Ceying was sure that Gu Tingye did not want to be involved in the title of Ningyuan Marquis, so he wanted to give the title to Gu Tingwei. After all, although Gu Tingwei was a little silly and naive, there were no other problems. But Gu Tingwei's mother, Xiao Qinshi, was not a good person. Although Zhao Ceying did not find any other problems with Xiao Qinshi, she did stir up the father-son relationship between Gu Tingye and Gu Yankai.

Therefore, in the end, the title of Ningyuan Marquis was downgraded to Ningyuan Earl, which was inherited by Gu Tingwei. At the same time, because Xiao Qin was an unkind mother, the title was downgraded for three generations.

This comment that she was an unkind mother was not spread, but Xiao Qinshi was indeed called into the palace by Queen Zhang Guifen and scolded. However, Xiao Qinshi did have some means. She immediately drove the four brothers Gu Yankai out of the Ningyuan Earl's Mansion, and quickly found a capable wife for her son Gu Tingwei. Then she retired to the Buddhist temple and never appeared in public again.

After Gu Tingye's family affairs were resolved and the three-year mourning period for the late emperor was over, Zhao Ceying immediately began to prepare for the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

This move was of course opposed by most of the court officials, and even the generals themselves were against it. The Duke of Yingguo himself was old, and although he hoped to see the court recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun during his lifetime, he did not want the emperor to be impatient for quick success and make the situation worse, so he did not completely stand on the emperor's side.

The new emperor tried it out, but he didn't expect to get such a result. Even when he returned to the harem, even the empress dowager and the queen did not approve of his move. Although he did not give up the idea of ​​recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, his enthusiasm was indeed severely hit.

Shi Ying reluctantly helped the new emperor analyze the situation. "First, most of the civil officials and military officers are against this because they rarely won against the Liao Kingdom before, so they don't have much confidence in this and are worried that this will be another waste of manpower. "

"Secondly, the Liao Kingdom has been politically stable in recent years, and our dynasty could not find a good time to send troops;"

"Third, there is a lack of young military commanders. Most of the old generals are no longer fit for the battlefield, and new generals have not yet been trained. No one knows how to fight this war;"

"This last one is probably related to King Heng."

The new emperor had to admit that Shi Ying was really thoughtful, especially the last one. Does anyone need to explain the difference between being an emperor and being his biological father?

The new emperor never expected that his father, who seemed to be concerned about the country and the people and even had the ambition to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, would turn into an ordinary prince of the royal family just because he surpassed him to become the emperor. He even insisted on going against his own son for the sake of interests and power!

The new emperor felt that he could temporarily put off the military action against the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, but he could not easily compromise with the court officials, so he summoned the Duke of Ying and asked him for advice, as he had to use military force against foreign countries anyway.

The Duke of England also knew that the new emperor was eager to establish his own prestige, so he agreed to use military force to establish his authority. However, he had to carefully select which small country in the surrounding area to attack.

Less than a month later, news came from the northwest that Western Xia had invaded the border. The new emperor and the Duke of England saw each other and decided to use Western Xia to establish his authority. The Duke of England personally served as the chief general, and under his command was Gu Tingye, an upstart who was good at using troops, and the young generation of nobles who wanted to gain some advantage in this war. It can be said that the emperor and his subjects were of one mind.

Because Shi Ying personally took on the task of preparing food and fodder, he went to Jingzhou and Shuzhou ahead of the army to supervise the preparation of food and fodder. After hearing the news, Molan and Rulan also contacted sisters Shulan and Pinlan who lived not far from Jingzhou for help. The food and fodder for the 200,000-strong army for two months were quickly prepared and almost arrived at the border together with the army.

After delivering the food and grass, Shi Ying had to return immediately to other places to continue preparing supplies. He had mobilized an army of 200,000. This battle was bound to be huge. Everyone in the court was thinking of using Xixia as a training ground. After all, Xixia was now experiencing frequent internal unrest and was preparing to divert internal conflicts, so it took the initiative to provoke the surrounding areas.

However, when Molan's caravan returned, it brought even more remarkable news: a power vacuum had appeared on the grassland, and perhaps a hero who could unify the various tribes on the grassland would emerge!

Of course, most of these people are just veterans who have retired from the battlefield. They cannot express any profound truths, but their intuition is still there, especially now that neither the Liao Kingdom nor the Western Xia has paid attention to the movements of the grassland, and there has been no possibility of unification of the grassland since the division of the previous dynasty.

But they could see that there were signs of the unification of the grassland. Some tribes were no longer satisfied with the current pastures, population and livestock, and wanted to annex their neighbors.

Anyone who has read a little history knows that the divided grasslands will often be unified with the unification of the Central Plains dynasty, and then become a major concern for the Central Plains dynasty.