The next day, July 25, Zhao Hongrun received a reply from his father: Yes.
Zhao Hongrun also breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, from a fair point of view, the Wei family did make a lot of concessions this time, abolishing the patriarchal system and giving up the status of the family. Although Wei Feng of the Tianshui Wei family hopes to coexist with the Zhao family on an equal footing, this is also based on respecting Zhao.
On the basis of respecting the Emperor of Wei, it can be considered that as long as the Longxi Wei family and the imperial court confirm formal negotiations, then the Longxi Wei family will be equal to the ministers of Wei.
Compared with this concession, the fact that Zhao allowed Wei to command an army seemed insignificant.
After all, in the Wei State today, the number of domestic garrison troops has increased to more than 400,000. Including the garrison troops in various places, the total force exceeds 600,000. This does not include the 50,000 foreign cavalry of the Northern Sichuan Cavalry.
Therefore, even if the Wei family is given an army of 30,000 or 50,000 people, it is not a big deal.
What's more, this army establishment was not given to the Wei family in vain. The Wei family must make contributions in northern Xinjiang.
Therefore, in general, the Zhao family of Wei State still made a profit. Not counting the Wei family's at least 50,000 troops obtained for nothing, they also obtained famous generals such as Lintao Lord Wei Ji and Jiang Bi, who were good at fighting, plus Tianshui Wei Feng.
With the talents of Longxi including Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, Wei's strength has increased a bit.
In fact, just as Lintao Lord Wei Ji said, the Wei family in Longxi and the Zhao family in Wei are from the same branch, so it is almost impossible to become enemies. The previous calculations by the Daliang court or Chui Gongdian against the Wei family in Longxi were believed to be just to gain the initiative and let
The Wei family in Longxi recognized the dominant position of the Zhao family and would not exterminate the Wei family in Longxi.
After all, they are both members of the Ji family. Unless it is a last resort, it would be hard for the Zhao family to fall out with the Wei family.
On the same day, when Zhao Hongrun conveyed his father's wishes to Wei Feng, Wei Ji and other Wei clan members, the latter were also very happy.
In the afternoon, the Wei family in Longxi organized a team of envoys, led by Wei Li, the father of the Wei family in Longxi, Wei Feng, the head of the Wei family in Tianshui, and Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, a total of three people, following Zhao Hongrun and Zhao Yuanyan.
Go to Daliang.
As for Lintao Lord Wei Ji and Si Ma Shu Chief Jiang Bi, they are preparing to rectify the Wei army in Longxi County in Yan County, striving to reorganize the army as soon as possible and go to northern Xinjiang.
Of course, this is just what the Wei family said on the surface. In fact, I believe that the Wei family still has some wariness towards the Zhao family. However, because the head of the Wei family in Tianshui, Wei Fengyi, went to Daliang in person, Zhao Hongrun simply
Treat it as unknown.
On July 27th, the Daliang delegation arrived at the west gate of Daliang with Wei Li, the father of the Wei family, Wei Feng and Zhao Sheng.
At this time, the imperial court had already made preparations to welcome him. Emperor Wei personally led hundreds of officials and tens of thousands of people in Daliang to greet the father of the Wei family ten miles away from the city.
At that time, the whole scene was very solemn, with the imperial guards lining up and drums and music playing, which could be said to have given Wei a lot of face.
Especially when the Emperor of Wei personally welcomed Wei Li, the father of the Wei family, into the imperial carriage, the congratulations of the officials in the court and the shouts of the people around him pushed the atmosphere of the entire scene to an extremely high level.
However, for Zhao Hongrun, compared to the bustling scene, he was more curious about his uncle Liu Wang's activities in the past few days.
After all, ever since Zhao Yuanli separated from Zhao Yuanyan in Ancheng, the Sixth Uncle Wang had disappeared. It was only when Zhao Hongrun reached a preliminary agreement with the Wei family in Yan County and prepared to return to Daliang that the Sixth Uncle Wang showed up halfway.
, joined the team that returned to Daliang.
According to Uncle Liu Wang, he has been staying with an old acquaintance of the Wei clan in Longxi these days. In order to please him, the Wei clan not only provided him with good food and drink these days, but also sent many family members to Accompanied by my beautiful concubine, my little life was so happy that I couldn’t miss it.
Uncle Liu Wang's explanation successfully aroused Princess Yulong's contempt, but also made Zhao Hongrun envious.
It has to be said that Zhao Hongrun has always envied Uncle Liu Wang's open-minded and free lifestyle. Unfortunately, his innate obsessive-compulsive disorder made him insensitive to the concubines raised in the family. He could not bear to have any skin contact with him. He wanted to know if his wife had any relations with others. Therefore, when he went to banquets at the houses of wealthy gentry families in the past, he never touched the concubines of the families.
After returning to Daliang, Emperor Wei welcomed Wei Li, Wei Feng and Zhao Sheng to the Zichen Hall of the imperial palace. He had already prepared a banquet in this palace to entertain Wei Li, Wei Feng, Zhao Sheng and their entourage.
The people accompanying the banquet, in addition to the hundreds of officials in the court, were Yong Wang Hongyu, Xiang Wang Hongjing, and Zhao Hongrun's fifth prince brother, Qing Wang Hongxin, who had just returned to Daliang.
It is worth mentioning that in the Zichen Hall, Zhao Hongrun also saw several familiar faces, such as the original clan elder, Zhao Hongrun’s great uncle Zhao Tairu, his cousin Zhao Laipu, his younger uncle Zhao Laituo, his third uncle Zhao Laiyu, and, Zhao Yuanzuo, the King of Southern Liang, made some of the ministers feel uncomfortable.
Since this banquet is a welcoming banquet of the highest standard, the seats of Wei Li, Wei Feng, and Zhao Sheng are arranged at the head of the east side. Wei Li, the father of the Wei family, sits in the chair, while Wei Feng, Zhao Sheng Katsu and his two brothers sat in the seats behind the chairman, and in the third row were the entourage of the three of them.
The subordinate of Wei Li, the father of the Wei family, is Zhao Hongrun's second uncle. The seat of Zongzheng Zhao Yuanyan of the clan, and in the accompanying seats, sit Zhao Hongrun's great uncle Zhao Tairu, cousin Zhao Laipu, younger uncle Zhao Laituo and others. The elder of the original Zongfu.
Then there is Zhao Hongrun's third uncle, Zhao Yuanzuo, King of Nanliang. For some unknown reason, Zhao Hongrun's fifth brother, King Qing Zhao Hongxin, actually sits on the seat of Zhao Yuanzuo, King of Nanliang.
Then, there was Zhao Yuanli, the uncle of the Sixth Prince. As for the accompanying seats, Zhao Hongrun took Mi Jiang, Princess Yulong and Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao to sit over. Surprisingly, the third uncle Zhao Laiyu also sat over.
As for the seats on the opposite west side, Yong Wang Hongyu and Xiang Wang Hongjing sat at the same table, leading all the officials in the court to take their seats in order.
In fact, this seat should belong to Hongli, the crown prince of the East Palace, but the East Palace is currently not in Daliang, so it was replaced by Yong Wang Hongyu and Xiang Wang Hongjing.
This is the highest-level welcome banquet in the Wei Kingdom. Even with Zhao Hongrun's current status, he cannot get the chairman in the front row and can only hang out in the accompanying seats.
But in fact, it is already extraordinary to be able to attend such a banquet. For example, the eldest son of Zhao Hongrun and his second uncle Zhao Yuanyan, Zhao Hongmin, Zhao Hongrun’s cousin, was not even lucky enough to attend. It is conceivable that this time The standard of the welcome banquet was very high.
"Third uncle, why don't you sit over there?"
During the banquet, Zhao Hongrun smiled softly at his third uncle Zhao Laiyu who was sitting next to him.
Because he noticed that not far away, his great-uncle Zhao Tairu was glaring here fiercely. He didn't know whether he was glaring at Zhao Hongrun or at Zhao Laiyu who "betrayed" him.
"If you go here at this time, wouldn't you be asking for trouble?" Third uncle Zhao Laiyu touched his nose and said with a wry smile.
In fact, since Zhao Laiyu decided to defect to Zhao Hongrun, he had already drawn a clear line with Zhao Tairu's Jiyang Zhao family. After all, the Jiyang Zhao family mostly supported Hongli, the prince of the East Palace, and Zhao Tairu had an affair with Zhao Hongrun, whether it was Political or personal, no matter how you think about it, we will never become fellow travelers.
Today, the third uncle Zhao Laiyu is sitting next to Zhao Hongrun, which can be regarded as a complete break with his uncle Zhao Tairu and made his position clear to Zhao Hongrun.
While Zhao Hongrun and Zhao Laiyu were chatting in low voices, Wei Li, the father of the Wei family in Longxi, and Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, solemnly submitted the Wei family genealogy and the Zhao family genealogy to Zhao Yuanyan, the current Zongzheng.
The former symbolizes that the Wei family in Longxi will be subordinate to the Zhao family from now on, while the latter represents the three branches of the Zhao family in Longxi and will be officially merged into the Zhao family in Wei.
The Emperor of Wei immediately reciprocated the favor by conferring the title of King of Longxi on Wei Li, the father of the Wei clan, and also awarded the former a piece of land in Taoqiu as a fief; as for Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, the Emperor of Wei rewarded him with a palace in Daliang. 's mansion.
It seems that Wei Li has gained more, but in fact, everyone with discerning eyes in the palace can see that Wei Li, the father of the Wei family, or the King of Longxi, will never have the opportunity to step into the center of power in the court from now on. He was just a powerless vassal king in the local area; as for Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, since the Emperor of Wei kept him in Daliang, he obviously planned to reuse him.
However, the new King of Longxi is quite satisfied. After all, he is already over sixty years old and does not look like an ambitious person. Otherwise, Zhao Hongrun would not have changed his attitude in the past few days because of Zhao Hongrun's coercion and inducement. .
After that, Wei Feng, the head of the Wei family in Tianshui, on behalf of the twelve branches of the Wei family, read the Wei family's pledge of allegiance to Emperor Wei. Anyway, Zhao Hongrun understood it this way. After all, every word in the memorial expressed that the twelve branches of the Wei family were willing to obey Zhao. clan and Emperor Wei.
After that, Wei Feng, on behalf of the twelve branches of the Wei family, made a request to Emperor Wei to participate in the war in Northern Xinjiang. He gave the same high-sounding reasons to Zhao Hongrun a few days ago.
The court seems to have been prepared for this.
No, Li Huan, Minister of the Ministry of War, came to dissuade him and said: "We at the Ministry of War understand the wishes of Master Wei Feng. However, from my perspective, the Wei family is not familiar with the war in the Central Plains, and the Wei family traveled a long distance to come to our great Wei Dynasty. The journey is far away. , I am afraid that the soldiers in the army are exhausted and should not go out to fight. I think that the Wei family should settle down in peace and recuperate..."
In fact, these words can be summed up in just one sentence, which is a tactful refusal to allow the Wei family to participate in the war.
Thinking about it, neither the Emperor of Wei nor the imperial court trusts the Wei family very much at the moment. How could the Wei family be allowed to go to Northern Xinjiang to gain military exploits? You must know that once the Wei family gets enough military exploits, if anything goes wrong between the two in the future. , it would be even worse for the imperial court and Chui Gong Hall to fall out with the Wei family.
However, at this moment, Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Nanliang, who had not been watching indifferently from beginning to end, spoke.
"My lord, I am willing to lend a helping hand to the Wei family and repel the enemy troops invading the territory as soon as possible!"
Hearing this, the entire Zichen Palace suddenly fell silent. Everyone in the palace was shocked and looked at Nanliang King Zhao Yuanzuo with astonished eyes.
Especially Emperor Wei, who looked at Wei Feng and then at Zhao Yuanzuo, the King of Nanliang, his face gradually darkened.
Third uncle?
Zhao Hongrun frowned, feeling that something was wrong with the atmosphere in the palace. (To be continued.)