The death of a great man has never been a matter of a country. On the third day after the news of the death of Empress Dowager Chengtian of Liao Kingdom Xiao Chuo came out of the Liao Kingdom's palace, the Song Dynasty court also learned about this news...

If Empress Xiao's death was a major earthquake that radiated to the entire Liao Kingdom with the capital of Shangjing, Linhuang Prefecture, the capital of Liao Kingdom, as the epicenter, the Song Dynasty was undoubtedly affected.

"Your Majesty, the old lady is gone."

"Oh." When Zhao Weiji heard the news from the intelligence personnel, he was not too surprised. Although Zhao Weiji didn't know when Empress Dowager Xiao died, he also knew that it should have happened in the past or two years.

However, although he was not too surprised by the news, Zhao Weiji still drove everyone out of his room. At this time, he wanted to calm down. In addition to mourning the great female surname who was famous in history, he also wanted to quietly think about whether he could use this opportunity to do something.

At the regular cabinet meeting the next day, Zhao Weiji, who usually did not attend the meeting, unexpectedly appeared in front of the cabinet ministers.

"Everyone knows, the old lady is gone."

Zhao Weiji's opening remark was not expected by the cabinet ministers. These important officials of the court also learned about the death of Empress Dowager Xiao last night.

Zhao Weiji appeared abnormally at the regular meeting of the cabinet, and everyone present could probably guess what Zhao Weiji was doing.

"I have decided to send a mourning team to Liao Kingdom."

Although the ministers knew that Zhao Weiji's exception today must have something to do with the death of Empress Dowager Xiao, they really did not expect that Zhao Weiji would send a team to Liao Kingdom to pay condolences at this time.

You should know that even if the two countries had just ended the war, the two countries basically had no diplomatic relations during peacetime.

The envoys of the two countries have basically never met on other occasions except on the battlefield.

Many ministers really couldn't figure out why Zhao Weiji suddenly had such an idea. Although they all admitted that Empress Dowager Xiao was indeed a great female surname, she had basically never gained any advantage in the Song Dynasty's relationship with the Liao Kingdom under Xiao Chuo for so many years.

But we cannot send envoys to Liao for condolences because of this.

So several people immediately took it out and raised objections. They believed that first of all, this was a very unnecessary thing, and even if the division team went to Liao Kingdom, they might not be able to complete the tasks assigned by the emperor.

However, there was no cabinet chief Kou Zhun among these opponents. Kou Zhun and Zhao Weiji had the same idea on this matter. Even after Zhao Weiji proposed this matter, Kou Zhun had already figured out who should be the leader of this mission.

"Emperor, Lord Kou, can you explain why this mourning team is necessary to exist?" As Wang Zeng, who has the highest voice in the opposition, he really wanted to find out why the cabinet chief and the emperor agreed on this matter that it was necessary to send a mourning team for the first time.

"Ping Zhong, please take a look at Xiaoxian." Seeing that the first talented man in history who won three consecutive years did not understand what he and Kou Zhun thought, Zhao Weiji decided to take out the thing.

The thing Zhao Weiji mentioned was a memorial submitted by Liu Rang earlier. This secret memorial mainly records the main situation of the Liao Dynasty's political arena that Liu Rang got from Xiao Qi's mouth about the past few years.

In fact, the confrontation between the Liao and Song dynasties has been at a disadvantage for a long time. In addition to military shortcomings, little knowledge of the Liao Dynasty is also a key reason.

This memorial on the political relationship between Liao Kingdom mentioned a very critical point, that is, the complex relationship between the major giants in the political world of Liao Kingdom.

Since Emperor Shengzong of Liao ascended the throne, the political forces within Liao were basically divided into two parts, one part was led by Empress Dowager Xiao, supplemented by Han Derang and the later rise of Yelu Mo.

Then there were traditional nobles, mainly Yu Yue Yelu Xiuge and Yelu Xizhen.

However, although the political arena is divided into two parts, there is no big conflict between these two parts. Even due to the long-term confrontation with Song, the two factions still have a lot of cooperation.

However, there is actually a third force in the political arena of the Liao Kingdom, but no one can see this third force on the surface, and he has been hiding under these two major forces.

And this third force is Yelu Longxu, the Emperor of the Saint of Liao. Why is it said that the emperor is the third force? In fact, neither of these two major forces can represent the emperor's interests.

Because these two factions had already had political ideas for their own interests and did not want the emperor to take power as soon as possible, this led to the fact that after the Emperor of the Saint-General of Liao, Yelu Longxu, still had Empress Xiao in power.

Because these two forces are too strong, even if the emperor has any dissatisfaction, he dare not speak out and can only endure it in his heart.

However, the emperor's forbearance did not bring the reward he wanted. When Yelu Xiuge had already passed away, one of the two forces collapsed due to the disappearance of the representative figures, the emperor still did not stand up to rule.

Because after these two people died, Yelu Mo successfully took over the military forces represented by them, and his origin in the Han Mansion made the two factions unified in fact.

The two tigers became the only one who could dominate the emperor, and the emperor was even more unable to stand out. The day of rule began to drag back day by day. The emperor's dissatisfaction increased dramatically.

Because the political arena of Liao Kingdom was like this, Zhao Weiji and Kou Zhun judged that after the death of Empress Dowager Xiao, there would inevitably be a huge change in the political arena of Liao Kingdom.

After all, no one can stop the emperor from taking power anymore. Even if Han Derang is still alive, Yelu Moru said to be Zhongtian, but outsiders have no way to prevent the emperor from taking power.

In the view of Zhao Weiji and Kou Zhun, once the Emperor of Liao wanted to take power, he would definitely take back the rights he deserved. However, this rights could not be easily handed over to Han Delang, who was still reforming the Liao Kingdom.

Since this is the case, Zhao Weiji hopes to take advantage of the conflict between the Emperor of Liao and the powerful ministers, and then the opportunity of Empress Dowager Xiao's death to expand their contradiction.

Wang Zeng was not himself. When he saw Liu Rang's memorial, he could naturally guess what the emperor and the prime minister had.

If the memorial is not correct, if a division team is sent to Liao Kingdom to pay condolences at this moment, it may indeed intensify the conflict between Liao Emperor and Han Derang.

"Is Wang Qing still opposed sending a division?" Zhao Weiji asked after seeing that Wang Zeng had finished reading this memorial.

After hearing the emperor's question, Wang Zeng closed the memorial, and then bowed to the emperor and Kou Zhun respectively and said, "I have a short-sighted attitude and almost misled Your Majesty's major affairs. I ask Your Majesty to punish you."

"Wang Qing doesn't have to do this, those who don't know are innocent. But from this we should also see that the Song Dynasty always suffered losses in the process of Liao in the past, which has a direct relationship with our lack of understanding of the Khitan.

Okay, let’s go back to sending divisions to pay condolences. Let’s talk about who is more suitable to lead the group to pay condolences. Let’s discuss it together.”

As soon as Zhao Weiji finished speaking, Kou Zhun stood up because Kou Zhun had already had a suitable candidate in his heart.

"I recommend Lord Jiang Yujiang, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue."

After Zhao Weiji ascended the throne, his original aides naturally entered the court, and they were assigned to specific departments according to their areas of expertise.

However, one person is an exception, and that person is Jiangyu. After entering the court, Jiangyu was arranged to the Ministry of Revenue. Although Jiangyu was doing well in the Ministry of Revenue, Zhao Weiji and other core ministers knew that it was a bit insignificant to let Jiangyu do things in the Ministry of Revenue.

With his talent, he should be able to do what Bandu Guard Ban Chao did, that is, to make achievements for the Song Dynasty through diplomatic channels.

The reason why he was not allowed to enter the Ministry of Rites to develop in this regard is that in the past few years, the Song Dynasty had basically no need to do anything in handling foreign relations.

Dali, the neighbors near the Song Dynasty, basically did not make any noise. Tubo had no contact for many years. Dangxiang was regarded as an internal rebellion by the Song Dynasty. The Khitan fought with the Song Dynasty and basically had no envoys to go back and forth. As for other small countries such as Goryeo and Bohai, they were basically cut off from the Song Dynasty because they were closer to the Liao Kingdom.

It is precisely such an embarrassing relationship that makes Jiang Yu's talent unable to be displayed at all, so he can only be arranged to the Ministry of Revenue to temporarily play his other roles.

Since there was finally such an opportunity, Kou Zhun was naturally the first to think of Jiangyu. Because Kou Zhun knew that if there was a civil strife in Liao Kingdom, it was possible that the Song Dynasty would be able to re-establish contact with Bohai, Goryeo and other countries through the civil strife in Liao Kingdom.

In this way, more and more convenient places will be needed in the future.

Zhao Weiji was also very satisfied with Kou Zhun's proposal. The reason why Zhao Weiji still allowed the Ministry of Rites to maintain diplomatic role in the Song Dynasty when the relationship between the surrounding territorial countries was very awkward, was because Zhao Weiji knew that this embarrassing situation would change sooner or later.

Zhao Weiji, who came from later generations, knew very well how important diplomacy was.

Since both the emperor and the prime minister favored Jiangyu, the others no longer proposed other candidates. They also knew in their hearts that they could not find a more suitable person than Jiangyu.

In this way, Jiang Yu became the leader of the first team to officially visit Liao Kingdom on a large scale since the founding of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Weiji prepared a visiting team of more than 100 people for him.
Chapter completed!