In the Zichen Palace, Wang Yanling had already led all the ministers to stand in line, waiting for Queen Mother Pan to return to preside over the court meeting.
Sima Guang also became an old man.
At this point, Queen Mother Pan can only adopt her own opinion.
As long as he could withdraw from the Liao and Xia Dynasties and ensure the stability of the Song Dynasty, he would have made a name for himself. In the future, he might have the opportunity to succeed Wang Yanling in power and use what he had learned in his life.
However, when he saw Cao Bin and Pan Renmei entering the palace together, some disgust and nervousness suddenly flashed in his eyes.
He is a conservative person and looks down upon people like Cao Bin who behave dissolutely.
Not to mention that Cao Bin was born as a warrior and liked to make profits through commercial means, which combined all his annoying characteristics.
For him, the current difficult situation of the Song Dynasty was caused by warriors like Cao Bin who incited the late emperor to conquer Xia. Moreover, the country's wealth remained unchanged, and Cao Bin's so-called methods of enriching the country and himself were all in competition with the people.
If Kou Zhun's attitude towards Cao Bin was mixed with admiration and vigilance, he was completely hostile and regarded him as a treacherous villain.
What makes him nervous is that Cao Bin is unprincipled and has treacherous and changeable methods. Now he suddenly appears in the court. If he wants to thwart his plan, there will be twists and turns.
Not only him, but Wang Yanling and others also frowned.
At this moment, when they saw Empress Dowager Pan and Concubine Pang walking out of the back hall, the ministers quickly bowed and saluted without thinking too much.
"Queen Mother, please issue an order to pardon King Duan Zhao Ji and order the Third Division to raise money and silk to quell this matter."
After the ceremony, Sima Guang couldn't wait to leave the class to ask for orders.
Empress Dowager Pan saw that he was taking advantage of the ministers and had the intention of coercion, and she felt even more resentful, so she was not in a hurry to let Cao Bin come forward.
She narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly, looked at the ministers and said:
"Is this what all the ministers mean?"
After hearing this, Wang Yanling and a small number of other court officials bowed and said:
"I agree with Sima Zhiyuan's words."
Zhang Dun couldn't help but say:
"I still don't agree..."
Just as he was about to leave work, he was interrupted sharply by Sima Guang:
"Zhang Dun, don't have any useless arguments."
"If you don't use my tricks, can you guarantee that Liao and Xia will not jointly attack the Song Dynasty and send the Empress Dowager back safely?"
Zhang Dun was speechless and retreated angrily:
"Although I dare not provide guarantee, it is not advisable to bribe the enemy country in order to keep things quiet."
Sima Guang ignored him and just sneered:
"If you don't dare to provide guarantee, why do you have the face to argue?"
"Besides, it's just a hundred thousand dollars in silk with him, so why cause more trouble?"
"Is it possible that we will continue to use nameless and unjust troops like last year, putting the country in danger?"
Having said this, he looked at the other ministers who were eager to try and said coldly:
"Anyone who disregards the safety of the country, blindly strives for merit and fights, and deceives the Holy Lord to provoke powerful enemies is all a traitor to the court and can be killed!"
After hearing this, everyone was speechless and didn't know how to refute.
After all, no one can guarantee whether Liao Xia will take advantage of the weakness of the Song Dynasty and the new death of the emperor to insult the empress dowager or send troops to attack.
No matter what happens, they cannot take responsibility.
Queen Mother Pan saw that the entire court fell into silence due to Sima Guang's words. She was feeling disappointed when she saw Cao Bin turn around and asked:
"So, Sima Zhiyuan is confident that he will withdraw from Liaoxia and calm the situation?"
When Sima Guang heard Cao Bin's question, although he didn't want to talk to him, he had to reply:
"The lower officials have their own plans."
When Pan Renmei, Zhang Dun and others heard this, they couldn't help but shook their heads, feeling that it would be difficult for Cao Bin to stop Sima Guang.
Compared with refusing to reason and fighting, naturally giving in and compromising are least likely to cause conflicts.
Only Concubine Pang looked expectantly, wanting to see what shocking words he had to say.
However, I saw Cao Bin saying so rudely:
"You have a feather in your cap."
When she heard this, she almost collapsed and coughed twice to cover up.
Sima Guang's face turned red with anger and he said angrily:
"Marquis Zhongjing, you insulted my subordinates, I want to interfere with you..."
Wang Yanling shook his head helplessly. He had known for a long time that Cao Bin did not play according to common sense, but he did not expect that just one sentence would interrupt Sima Guang's rhythm, and he could only say:
"Honored Lord Zhongjing, if you want to speak, just speak. No obscene words are allowed in the court."
Seeing Wang Yanling come forward, Sima Guang also calmed down, glared at Cao Bin and said:
"Honor Zhongjing, if you have any opinions, please tell me clearly."
He looked at Cao Bin with anger in his eyes, and when he couldn't give a sufficient reason, he immediately started to complain.
However, Cao Bin took out a stack of manuscript paper from his sleeve and said to Sima Guang:
"This is the information sent by the Daxiangguo Temple. It describes in detail the conspiracy between the Liao people and Xixia."
"Do you think you can satisfy them with one hundred thousand guan of silk? This is just to test the attitude of Song Dynasty."
"Xi Xia wants to fortify the cities in Hengshan, and you will give it to them too?"
When Cao Bin was serving in the Foreign Affairs Academy, he entertained Liao people at the Daxiangguo Temple, and also dug many secret passages in the temple to spy on the intelligence of the Liao mission.
That secret passage was dedicated to making fuss about Buddha statues, and the Liao people lived there several times without discovering it.
In the past two years, the monks of Daxiangguo Temple have made a lot of money from Cao Bin by virtue of their work of gathering intelligence.
Sima Guang had no idea that Cao Bin could detect Liao Xia's conspiracy.
But he reacted immediately and said nonchalantly:
"Don't say that I am waiting for kindness and power. Liao Xia dare not go too far."
"So what if we gave them to those fortresses? Those were the fortresses that our dynasty used to seize the Xixia people. They were the source of the chaos on the border."
"Zhong Shiheng, the envoy of the Jinglue of Yanyan, wrote several times, saying that the Hengshan Walled City was being harassed by Xixia stragglers and bandits, and asked the court to allocate money and grain to rebuild the new city."
"But where did the imperial court get the money and food?"
"In my opinion, instead of occupying the unjust land, it is better to return it directly to the other party to avoid conflict between the two countries."
Upon hearing this, the ministers immediately started to make a noise.
The real harvest of the great Song Dynasty wars was that these cities in Hengshan suppressed Xixia on the terrain.
If these cities were given to them, it would be equivalent to giving away the fruits of the bloody battles of hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Song Dynasty in vain.
Not to mention that many military officials were trembling with anger, even tougher civil servants such as Kou Zhun couldn't help it and cursed:
"Sima Fu, shut up, you are treasonous."
If they just lost some money, they could still accept it, but there was no precedent for the Song Dynasty to cede territory.
Taijun She was so angry that she knocked her cane on the ground. Only generals like them who had participated in the Battle of Xixia knew how difficult it was to conquer these cities. You just gave them away as you said, and you didn't take the soldiers seriously.
Seeing that he had become the target of public criticism, even his own officials did not dare to offer help. However, Sima Guang did not care. He just looked at everyone coldly and said:
"Originally, the three kingdoms of Song, Liao and Xia have been in harmony for several years. If you hadn't deceived the late emperor to attack Xixia and resorted to violence, how could we, the Song Dynasty, have faced such a crisis?"
"The two countries of Liao and Xia are extremely difficult to deal with. You can only show off your words, but do you have a plan to redeem the Empress Dowager and subjugate Liao and Xia?"
"If there is no plan, there is no need to say more..."
After hearing this, everyone immediately looked at each other speechless, feeling extremely helpless.
Queen Mother Pan's face was ashen and she was speechless.
Seeing this, Cao Bin shook his head in disdain and cursed:
"Then Xixia took away our territory from the Song Dynasty and rebelled to establish a country,"
"You are so damn shameless, you can actually say such words of betraying your ancestors."
After saying that, he ignored him again, turned around and cupped his hands and said:
"The Queen Mother does not need to pay attention to this shameless person. Cao can write a letter to the Queen Mother of Xixia and ask her to send it back to the Queen Mother. Don't dare to move lightly..."
