Kaifeng Bistro

Chapter 45 Taking care of each other

Everyone was moved. This is the song "Fisherman's Pride" written by Fan Zhongyan and Fan Xiwengong who guarded Yanzhou, an important border area. After Shuanglian sang this song, she bestowed a blessing on everyone , stood up, went back to Li Weiming and sat down.

After a few more glasses of wine, the people present naturally talked about the battle at the border—the Song army was defeated at Sanchuankou at the beginning of the year. Nearly a year has passed. Fight against the enemy and quarrel endlessly.In July and August, Xia Song, who was well-known in the imperial court, served as the appeasement envoy of Shaanxi Fourth Road Economic Strategy, and the young and promising Han Qi and the upright and steady Fan Zhongyan were the deputy envoys, guarding Jingyuan Road and Fuyan Road respectively.

Li Weiming sighed and said: "Oh! I have been trapped in the capital for a long time, only for my immediate gains and losses, and I almost lost my nature! I killed brother Zhang Xian, and almost fell into the trap of Yeli Changrong... Now that I am awake, Thinking about my great Song Dynasty, I was invaded by barbarians like Xixia, and the people on the border were devastated. I am a scholar who has read sage books for more than ten years, and I do my best to serve the country. How can I have the face to worry about these things myself!"

As soon as his words fell, many people at the table showed shame.Zhou Yanjing hurriedly raised his glass to persuade: "Fortunately, there are Duke Han, Duke Fan, and Lord Wen, Lord Pang, and Lord Bao in the imperial court. Loyal and virtuous people like Lord Bao shared the worries of the officials. Previously, Xixia just won the battle by surprise. Now we have deployed heavy troops across the borders of the Great Song Dynasty, and there are still many good generals in command. I don't believe that Li Yuanhao has the guts to invade us again!"

A civil official from the Kaifeng Mansion who came along with Zhan Zhao also nodded and said: "Yes, this time, I heard that many generals in the Forbidden Army have also gone to the border to help in the battle. As far as I know, there is the former Dianqian Division Wang. Gui, Ren Fu, and Wu Ying are all brave and skilled fighters!"

Another person also said: "Yes! Especially that is Wang Gui. I know him well. He has been good at riding and shooting since he was a child, and he is also proficient in yin and yang magic. He has a good iron whip. He is called "Wang Iron Whip". Now they They have all been transferred to Jingyuan and Huanqing as supervisors. With them stationed at the border, the officials should feel relieved."

"That's right!" Lu Yang echoed repeatedly: "I heard people say that Deputy Envoy Han went to Beijing a few days ago and wanted to persuade the officials to agree to go to war as soon as possible! The Xixia people will fight back to their hometowns!"

"Go to war?!" Tan Zhifeng was a little surprised: "We want to take the initiative to fight against the Xixia people?!"

"That's right!" Lu Yang nodded and continued: "Speaking of this Deputy Envoy Han Qi Han, he is really an amazing person! He was admitted to Jinshi at the age of 19, and he was second in the list! A few years ago, he was appointed as an official You Sijian saw that catastrophes were happening all over the place, the refugees had no place to resettle, and the four prime ministers did nothing at all, and a memorandum killed all four of them. At that time, this incident caused a sensation in the entire capital!"

Everyone nodded, and Lu Yang said again: "Also, I don't know if you have heard, but a few days ago, he also won a big victory in the White Leopard City! This White Leopard City is Li Yuanhao's military center. The deputy envoy struck east and west, and was burned to ruins, and the Xixia people were greatly shocked, and they retreated back to the desert, and there was no movement for a long time!"

"I heard about it!" Zhao Hu patted the table excitedly, "That battle was really elated! Oh, in my opinion, it's time to take advantage of the victory and go after it! Beat the Xixia people back to their hometowns in one go! All the land in the northwest will be taken back!"

"That's right! That's right!" Both literati and warriors on both sides of the long table held up their wine glasses and said in a hurry: "It should have been like this a long time ago, let Li Yuanhao see how good we are!"

Some people also said: "Oh, although Fan Xiwen's articles are good, he is probably old, but he is not as young and promising as Han Gong. I heard that he only knows about repairing the city in Yanzhou. How can Guangxiu city scare the Xixia people away? Woolen cloth?"

After some discussions, the solemn expressions on everyone's faces gradually dissipated, and the lively atmosphere returned to the banquet.After hearing Li Weiming's words, Tan Zhifeng also felt a little regretful. He was not familiar with the past of the Song Dynasty at all. He only knew that the Song Dynasty emphasized culture over military affairs and had lost many battles. But how did the dispute with Xixia be resolved in the end?What's next?

Although most of the people now look like "people from Xixia are not intimidated", Tan Zhifeng always feels that things Maybe it's not as simple as they imagined.

What's more, Bo has also appeared now, and he has a new identity - Nori Changrong, the king of Xixia.He was not among the dozen or so Xixia spies captured on the day of the winter solstice, which means that he is still lurking in Kaifeng City, and the smoke just now... Tan Zhifeng couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He knew that Bo must be planning something , and, he will never let Xu Gan go...

Although he has only lived in Kaifeng for more than two months, Tan Zhifeng likes this peaceful and affluent place, and he also likes these people in front of him. He hopes that they can live in such a peaceful and affluent way forever, and not be bullied by crazy people like Bo Excuse me, he doesn't want to see the bustling and beautiful scenery become devastated, the hard-working and simple people are displaced, and even their lives are threatened.

After all, he had seen too many such miserable situations before.

Xu Gan seemed to have noticed Tan Zhifeng's uneasiness, put his hand over, and patted Tan Zhifeng's shoulder lightly and comfortingly.Tan Zhifeng raised his wine cup filled with water, touched Meishou in Xu Gan's hand, seeing the slight smile on Xu Gan's face, he couldn't help but smile, and said silently in his heart: "Xu Gan, Ying Long, no matter who you are, next year, we will continue to take care of each other..."

But Xu Yan seemed to see Tan Zhifeng's thoughts, he drank the fine wine in one gulp, and said to Tan Zhifeng: "My brother, thank you very much." Then said: "From now on, everything will be on my brother."

Tan Zhifeng put down his cup, although he didn't drink, his face felt a little hot for no reason.Without paying attention, Wen Hui came up again and raised his hand to touch Tan Zhifeng's face.Tan Zhifeng was taken aback by him, but before he could push Wen Hui away, she pressed her tightly and whispered in his ear: "Tan shopkeeper, you and your brother don't look alike at all. Like? Are you really brothers?"

Tan Zhifeng was shocked. He believed that his astonishment must be fully exposed at this moment.In front of Wen Hui, he couldn't hide anything. Could it be that he is really a master of Taoism?

Besides, why is Wen Hui so interested in him and Xu Gan?In order to cover up his gaffe, he stretched out his hand to a cup next to him, but he knocked the cup to the ground in a panic.

Taking advantage of picking up the cup, Tan Zhifeng tried his best to calm down the panic in his heart.But when he picked up the cup, Wen Hui pointed to Chen Qing who was opposite and said to him: "That scholar has been staring at you since just now. How about this, let me kiss you, you see it's you The elder brother is the first to attack me, or the young man can't sit still..."

Tan Zhifeng threw the cup he had just picked up with a bang.Wen Hui immediately burst out laughing.Tan Zhifeng realized that Wen Hui was teasing him, but this discovery didn't make him relax, instead he felt even more on pins and needles.He simply picked up the glass that had been broken in half, and walked towards the back kitchen with a blushing face.

Looking at the people sitting in front eating and drinking happily from the back kitchen, Tan Zhifeng felt much calmer.Wen Hui looked like nothing had happened, and talked about Buddhism with Zhou Yanjing beside him with a solemn face.Xu Yan was feeding Ling'er, while Changshang and Zhuo Zhuo ate hard, while Yi Yi and Zhan Zhao on the other side looked preoccupied, drinking glasses of wine.Chao Mahan punched and boiled meat while Shuanglian and Li Weiming whispered next to each other...Huh?Where did Chen Qing go?

"Zhifeng." Tan Zhifeng was wondering, when suddenly Chen Qing's voice sounded beside him.It turned out that Chen Qing didn't know when he stood up and came to the back kitchen: "I..."

Tan Zhifeng looked at Chen Qing, since he confided his thoughts to Tan Zhifeng on the winter solstice and was rejected by Tan Zhifeng, although he still came to Tan Zhifeng's tavern, he was always with Zhou Yanjing, and rarely came to Tan Zhifeng alone.Tan Zhifeng originally thought that he had already thought about it, but looking at the frowning, half-drunk and half-awake Chen Qing in front of him, he realized that he had underestimated this young man's persistence again.

Chen Qing drank a lot, but Tan Zhifeng felt that he was still sober.He looked nervously at Xu Gan outside from time to time, and found that Xu Gan's attention was on Ling'er, so he said to Tan Zhifeng as if making up his mind: "Zhi, Zhifeng, I hope you don't take offense to what happened that day. I, I have been thinking for the past few days, whether what I mentioned that day was too sudden, but, but I really like you..."

"I'm not offended, but I've said it too..." Tan Zhifeng looked at him and said seriously, "Zijin, I really can't accept your kindness."

"Why?" Chen Qing asked anxiously: "I, I just want to know more about you, Zhifeng, I know it may, may be a bit awkward at first, but you have to believe that two men can also be together for life , When liking someone, there should be no distinction between men and women. I like you, just like the relationship between Mingjing and Shuanglian... I need someone, I need you..."

Tan Zhifeng patiently continued to explain: "I believe, I also know that this kind of relationship does not distinguish between men and women, but the problem is that I don't like you. Zijin, no matter what reason you like me, I still want to tell you, You should find your own fate as soon as possible, and stop wasting time on me."

"Why?!" Chen Qing's expression suddenly became both frustrated and excited: "Could it be that you already have a girl you like? No, you said you didn't... Then, do you have a crush on a man? Who is it? ? Is it Zhan’s bodyguard?!”