Yang Yizhong understood Zhao Guan's family well; Qin Hui's name appearing on the Jin's official communique was undoubtedly a relief for this official.

In fact, thinking about it, as a time-traveler, Zhao Jiu was destined to face certain difficult problems in the long run.

The most basic, that is, the main mission of recovering lost territories, resisting Jin, and restoring The Filature of the Song, actually had no room for hesitation. Such a matter of right and wrong had to be faced head-on, whether it succeeded or not. After all, he had received nine years of compulsory education; how could he 'bear to abandon the Central Plains and the Two Rivers'?

But other issues were more subtle.

For example, how to deal with and face the two captured emperors? What kind of attitude to take towards other abducted members of the imperial family? And at the beginning, how to face Consort Pan, who was then Consort Xian, and her imperial heir, as well as the so-called Empress Dowager Yuanyou? Even, how to face Li Gang and Zong Ze?

It must be known that Zhao Jiu initially had an evasive attitude towards Consort Pan and even Zong Ze, and could only stare blankly at Li Gang. It was not until later, when he had achieved some success and was forced into a corner, that he dared to respond slightly.

But these were insignificant compared to the very last, and crucial, issue... how to face Yue Fei and Qin Hui?

After all, for Zhao Jiu, Yue Fei was not just Yue Fei, and Qin Hui was not just Qin Hui. The objects represented by the names Yue Fei and Qin Hui in his mind were not two simple people, but two cultural symbols that had undergone nearly a thousand years of cultural brewing, with far-reaching significance beyond themselves. But at the same time, as a so-called official of the Great Song, Zhao Jiu had to face these two living people in reality and maintain a relationship that was reasonable for the times.

Yue Fei was fine... After all, Zhao Jiu was not a Zhihu Big V before time-traveling, and he didn't need to consider how to kill Yue Fei to save the Song regime after time-traveling. It was just that at the beginning, because of the vanity of a patriotic youth, he was a little jealous of the image of the protagonist of the era in his imagination. But these had long disappeared after he personally saw the real person and reached a successful cooperation model with him.

In short, Zhao Jiu and Yue Fei were destined to be natural comrades-in-arms in the same camp, and the cultural symbols in the image and the real-life relationship between the two sides never had any inevitable conflict.

But Qin Hui was hard to say.

The simplest question was, now that so many people's efforts and sacrifices had achieved a confrontation between Song and Jin along the Yellow River, and Jin's failure seemed not so unimaginable in the long run, then if at this time, Qin Hui came back, and wanted to serve the country and the people like Wan Qixie, and there was no evidence... then what would Zhao Guan's family do?

"Perhaps?"

If he really convicted a former Supervising Secretary without solid evidence, Li Gang would probably vomit blood and die in the southeast, and Zong Ze and Wang Boyan would have to crawl out of their graves to write about Qin Hui’s innocence. Even Lü Haowen, Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, Liu Ji, and Chen Gui would probably be disheartened, and even Yue Pengju and Han Shizhong would probably submit memorials to plead for him.

Then history books would also say that the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty created the biggest unjust case in the history of the Zhao Song Dynasty, which would be like a toad climbing on your foot, not killing you but disgusting you to death.

And you can't explain it!

Explain what?

Since ancient times, judgment is based on actions, not intentions!

In fact, starting from Zheng Yinian, Zhao Jiu had been touched by this nerve... and Zheng Yinian probably didn't know that his brothers were separated north and south in turn, only because the official had become wary of his cousin-in-law and wanted to use him to beat the mountain and shake the tiger?

But in any case, regardless of whether beating the mountain and shaking the tiger had an effect or the Wushu brothers really needed such a person, now Qin Hui had become a standard high-level official of the Jin, so at least there was no need to worry about this person disgusting himself.

This made Zhao Guan's family feel a little better today.

But it was just a little better... After a while, Zhao Jiu had to face the serious issue of the Imperial Cavalry Army. To put it bluntly, how could he launch a northern expedition without warhorses?

"The affairs of the Jin Kingdom do not need to be taken care of for the time being..." After personally ordering the eight thousand cavalry troops to transfer to the prepared camp, Zhao Jiu thought for a moment, and still shook his head at Yuetai in response to the accompanying civil and military officials. "I only ask you, what about the warhorses?"

The surrounding officials looked at each other in twos and threes, thoughtfully.

Obviously, these people did not think that the affairs of the Jin Kingdom should be 'temporarily ignored'... what was the purpose of warhorses, and even the formation of the Imperial Cavalry Army, if not for the northern expedition? And what was the northern expedition for, if not to deal with the Jin people?

And now that the Jin people had undergone such a major change, how could they not manipulate things diplomatically?

Don't forget, the attitudes of many people in the 'Absconding with Lanterns' drama that Zhao Guan's family staged in the Wende Hall before were already obvious. Now that the Jin people were in internal turmoil, and there was a real possibility of sincere peace talks, it was normal for these people to have fluctuating thoughts... However, Zhao Guan's family's attitude aside, just the stinky face he had put on for half a day today made it difficult for them to interrupt at this time.

Therefore, after a long time, someone cupped their hands and came out, saying a nonsense: "Your Majesty, to obtain warhorses, in the long run, we must restore the horse administration..."

"The Song's horse administration?" Zhao Jiu frowned slightly. "Did we have a special warhorse official office before?"

"Of course, we did." The official below continued to be serious. "When the Huang Song Dynasty was founded, the Directorate of Animal Husbandry was established, with tens of thousands of acres of official horse farms. At most, there were 170,000 horses. If half of them could be used for military purposes, there would also be 70,000 to 80,000 horses available..."

"No need to say more." Zhao Jiu was a little impatient after listening to half of it. "I don't even need to think about it to know that it was again civil officials in charge of horse administration, but they didn't know anything about animal husbandry. Then there was endless court encroachment, and lower-level officials were greedy and corrupt... The horse administration was abandoned in a few years, and this Directorate of Animal Husbandry also disappeared in several reforms, right? How many of the bad things in the Great Song Dynasty can be separated from these three types of people? Isn't it you, us, and them, that is, ourselves, who have ruined the world? We can't blame it on others!"

The man immediately shut up. Qu Duan originally wanted to say "Your Majesty is wise," but he finally resisted and didn't dare to say it.

And Zhao Guan's family sighed, also helpless, but continued to ask: "What about later? The Directorate of Animal Husbandry is gone now. How did we deal with the warhorse issue later?"

"Let Your Majesty know that when Wang Shu Wang (Wang Anshi) was in power later, he made a 'Horse Protection Law,' which was to keep the court's warhorses in the homes of the common people. Those who raised horses could offset taxes with horses..." Another person came out, as if he was reciting a treasure trove.

Zhao Jiu shook his head again: "I respect Wang Shu Wang very much, but his New Laws, as long as they involve the government and the people, will inevitably have the suspicion of apportionment. And once there is apportionment, it will inevitably make the people complain. This method must be the worst part of the New Laws."

"Your Majesty is wise." The answer came immediately from below. "So this method was still abolished, and we returned to the original official-run pastures, but it was mainly based on border horse markets, and then concentrated raising. We could no longer breed ourselves."

"In other words, no matter what, this horse administration can't escape three categories... the so-called official self-raising and self-breeding, using civilian power for surrogate raising, and border trade?" Zhao Jiu sighed.

"Exactly."

"In the long run, restoring the Directorate of Animal Husbandry for official breeding can be considered, but we can't let civil officials who don't understand animal husbandry participate anymore... The Department of State Affairs and the Privy Council should jointly come up with a proposal." Zhao Jiu instructed helplessly.

"Yes." Several chancellors were obviously distracted.

But Qu Duan, at this time, abruptly cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, setting up a Directorate of Animal Husbandry, eight or nine times out of ten, it can be done."

"What do you mean?" Zhao Jiu asked in confusion. "Why are you bootlicking at this time?"

"I'm not bootlicking, but speaking honestly." Qu Duan answered sincerely. "I've always been clear in Guanxi. The reason why horses couldn't be raised in the imperial gardens of Guanxi in previous years was largely because they were all raising sheep. Guanxi mutton is fat and tender, and is specially used to supply the palace and the capital. It is said that the palace used to consume tens of thousands of sheep every year. And with Your Majesty's current thriftiness, I think at least Guanxi can have many more horses!"

Zhao Jiu was stunned for a long time before shaking his head and continuing: "Setting up a Directorate of Animal Husbandry is a long-term plan, and using civilian power for surrogate raising is the most undesirable, so there's no need to say more. Only at the moment, to solve the urgent need, we still have to go through border trade... But the Western Xia... Are there any envoys from Western Xia in Tokyo?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty... there aren't." Zhai Ruwen, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, quickly came out.

"Then are there any who know the inside story of Western Xia?" Zhao Jiu frowned even more.

As soon as these words came out, dozens of people, from Zhao Ding and below civil officials, and Qu Duan and below military officers, stood out almost at once.

Seeing this, Zhao Jiu realized that Song and Western Xia knew each other's bottoms, so he simply pointed to Zhai Ruwen: "Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, speak, this is your duty."

"Your Majesty." Zhai Ruwen saluted slightly, then raised his head and said solemnly. "I don't know what Western Xia matters Your Majesty wants to ask about?"

Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment... he didn't know anything about Western Xia.

However, seeing the cavalry troops entering the camp one after another, and it was still early today, Zhao Jiu was happy to hear stories, so he simply asked directly: "Who is the current ruler of Western Xia? How long has he been on the throne? What is his prestige in the country? What is the state of the country? I want to hear the truth."

Although Zhai Ruwen was surprised that Zhao Guan's family did not know the ruler of Western Xia, he still answered immediately: "Let Your Majesty know that the current ruler of Western Xia is called Li Qianshun. He succeeded to the throne at the age of three and has been on the throne for forty-five years. This person has extremely high prestige in Western Xia, and these decades have also been the most stable decades in Western Xia. It can be called a prosperous and peaceful country."

This was somewhat unexpected.

However, Zhao Jiu just paused slightly and continued to ask: "Then what major events has this Li Qianshun done since he came to the throne? Briefly tell me."

"Reporting to Your Majesty... Before Li Qianshun was sixteen years old, the court affairs were basically controlled by his mother's family, the Liang clan. After his grandmother, Lady Liang, died, his mother, also Lady Liang, still controlled the court. About thirty years ago, his mother, the younger Lady Liang, first fought for power with her own brothers, destroying her own Liang clan relatives, acting arbitrarily. Then, she once coerced Li Qianshun, who was still not fully grown, to rebel, and led the country to attack my dynasty in Yanzhou Road... After that battle, Western Xia was defeated and returned. The emperor of Liao knew that Lady Liang was acting recklessly, so he sent someone to poison Lady Liang after the war. Li Qianshun got rid of the Liang clan and successfully took charge of the government."

Hearing these words, Zhao Jiu's face did not change color... What else could he expect? These kinds of matters related to maternal relatives are traditional East Asian skills.

"In the following years, Li Qianshun married the princess of Liao again, using Liao as support, and the war between him and my Huang Song was uncertain..."

"How were the victories and defeats?" Zhao Jiu suddenly asked curiously.

Zhai Ruwen hesitated obviously, but still answered seriously: "During the reign of Emperor Zhezong, Huang Song won more and lost less. During the reign of the Taishang Daojun Emperor, Huang Song lost more and won less... The most famous battle was twelve years ago. Tong Guan, as the Pacification Commissioner of Xihe Road, took Liu Fa (Liu Zhengyan's father) as his general, and marched all the way to the city of Lingzhou, but unexpectedly, the Western Xia people won the battle against the city, and Liu Fa's army was wiped out."

Zhao Jiu's expression did not change, obviously not feeling any surprise.

"However, Li Qianshun took advantage of the situation to counterattack. After a great victory, he asked to surrender in the name of Liao... Huang Song was almost forced to agree."

Zhao Jiu was slightly moved at this moment.

"Your Majesty should know what happened later. When the Jin people went south, Li Qianshun, as the son-in-law of Liao, rescued three times before and after. One of those times, a 30,000 strong army was routed by Lou Shi in one battle. Western Xia then submitted to the Jin... And the queen of Western Xia, that is, the princess of Liao, Yelu Nanxian, heard that her old country was destroyed, but she directly starved herself to death. And the crown prince of Western Xia, Li Ren'ai, was always filial, and also died of sorrow along with his mother." At this point, Zhai Ruwen supplemented slightly. "Li Qianshun and his queen have always been deeply in love, and he loves his eldest son even more. In terms of selfishness, he naturally clashes with the Jin people. But this person has always been tolerant. After his wife died, he took the safety of the country as his foundation, and became more and more gentle with the Jin people... The year before last, Lou Shi attacked Jinning Army and surrendered Zhe Keqiu. They went back and forth from the territory of Western Xia at will. Not only that, he learned that the person in charge of the Jin's west route army was Nianhan, and he was particularly flattering to Nianhan. It is said that he repeatedly bribed Nianhan with heavy gold, and Nianhan also repeatedly denied the theory of attacking Western Xia."

Zhao Jiu nodded, thoughtfully, and then asked again: "Besides military affairs, does Li Qianshun have any other famous achievements?"

"Yes." Zhai Ruwen continued to answer casually. "He respected Buddhism and Confucianism. During his decades in power, the decades-long dispute between 'Han etiquette' and 'Fan etiquette' in Western Xia was finally resolved. Today's Western Xia is all Han style..."

Zhao Jiu smiled dumbly. This was expected... Which serious monarch of a serious country would not first sort out the ideology before starting work? Even the Jin people, after this coup, didn't they also start a sinicization reform as soon as possible?

"In any case, this Li Qianshun is a ruler who maintained the status quo?" After laughing, Zhao Jiu was still solemn.

"I think Li Qianshun can indeed be called a ruler who maintained and developed the status quo." Zhai Ruwen bowed in response.

However, after listening to these words, Zhao Jiu asked curiously again: "Let's not talk about Li Qianshun, just talk about Western Xia. I still have one thing I don't understand... Isn't the core of Western Xia after all just the Hetao area? Even the foundation of the country is the Lingzhou and Xingzhou areas... That area is beautiful again, but it's not even one-fifth as strong as Guanxi, right? Why did Li Yuanhao establish the country? And then the country continued for nearly a hundred years?"

Zhai Ruwen wanted to speak but stopped, and everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

"Qu Duan." Zhao Jiu simply named him. "You speak."

"I think it's probably the desert sea!" Qu Duan answered with a stiff head. "Let Your Majesty know that to take the land of Xing and Ling, there are only three ways. One is to go out of Xihe, down the Yellow River; the second is to go out of Jingyuan, take the Hulu River and then connect to the Yellow River; the third is to go out of Baimachuan and connect to Lingzhouchuan... Among the three roads, the closest is the Baimachuan and Lingzhouchuan road, but there are also hundreds of miles of desert sea to go."

"How many hundreds of miles is hundreds of miles?"

"The narrowest is two or three hundred miles, and the widest is six or seven hundred miles..."

Zhao Jiu felt even more absurd: "Hundreds of miles of desert... Is there still any Baimachuan and Lingzhouchuan in the middle as roads?"

"Yes."

"Then send 50,000 elite troops, prepare logistics, take them by surprise, and take Lingzhou directly along this road, can't we do that?" Zhao Jiu asked seriously. "Don't pretend to be confused with me. With Western Xia's national power, even in Li Yuanhao's time, could they have 50,000 elite troops?"

"Your Majesty..." Zhao Ding couldn't help but come out and interrupt.

"Qu Duan, speak!" Zhao Jiu raised his hand to stop Zhao Ding.

"Your Majesty," Qu Duan said cautiously, "Logically, it should work, but military affairs is something that is never certain..."

"If you don't go through the desert sea, what about going through the Hulu River, taking the Yellow River as a grain route and fighting steadily?" Zhao Jiu was obviously a little angry. "I'm not saying that we should hit it in one shot. What I mean is that Western Xia has been established for nearly a hundred years. From Li Yuanhao to Li Qianshun, the Great Song should have died a million people in this small country, and lost who knows how many billions of military funds, right? A million people, divided into twenty times, should be able to succeed once, even if the entire army is wiped out nineteen times?! And I'm not saying that we should destroy Western Xia in one battle. Wouldn't the situation be set if we could touch the hinterland of Lingzhou once? Even if destiny is not with Song, and we can't succeed twenty times, shouldn't the Western Xia people be worn down by twenty large-scale advances? Why is the situation like this? Or are Di Qing and these people all useless? Are the history books I read all fake? Are the people who wrote the history books all Di Qing's sons?"

"Your Majesty," Qu Duan finally couldn't bear it, but looked up under the angry eyes of several chancellors, "The people who wrote the history books are all Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan's sons. If Di Qing replaces Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, Western Xia would have been destroyed long ago."

Several chancellors, plus many ministers, had no choice but to quickly look at Zhao Guan's family, only to see Guan's family leaning back in his seat, silent.

And after a long time, Guan's family was seen pressing the blister at the corner of his mouth and speaking angrily: "First Yan Yun, second Western Xia, third Southern Yue, fourth Dali, leaving behind a century of trouble, a disgrace!"

All the civil and military officials did not dare to speak for a while.