Zhao Zhen demoted Fan Zhongyan to the magistrate Yaozhou, and soon transferred him to the magistrate Qingzhou. Zhao Zhen also ordered Chen Zhizhong, the Minister of Works, to serve as the Shaanxi Pacification and Recruitment Envoy, and to judge the Yongxing Army with Xia Xuan. The two had different opinions and often had conflicts. Zhao Zhen had to appoint Xia Xuan to station Fuzhou and Chen Zhizhong to station Jingzhou. Xia Xuan was guarding the border for two years, and he shrank and had both rats when encountering trouble. He took concubines in the camp, lingering in wine and sex all day, regardless of border feelings. Li Yuanhao offered a reward for Xia Xuan's head, and only priced at three thousand yuan. For a while, border people were joked.

Li Yuanhao also advanced to the Lin Mansion, broke Ningyuan Village, and captured Fengzhou. Alarms reached the capital one after another. Zhang Fangping, the Zhijianyuan, reported: "Xia Shu has been the commander for three years. He either did not send troops, but he would be defeated if he sent troops. The enemy's only had no coming, and he would inevitably sweep him if he came. What's the use of such a commander? Please select another commander to consolidate the border defense!"

Zhao Zhen then changed Xia Feng to serve as the judge of Hezhong, and Yang Zhizhong was the governor of Jingzhou. After the court's discussion, Qin Feng, Jingyuan, Huanqing and Fuyan were divided into four routes, and Han Qi was appointed as the governor of Qinzhou and Qinfeng. Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the governor of Qingzhou, Huanqing, Wang Yan was appointed as the governor of Weizhou, Jingyuan, Pang Ji was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou, and Fuyan. Each of them was also the governor and governor of the governor. Except for Wang Yan, all four were in a good position to defend themselves, repairing cities and building villages, and recruiting the people.

When Fan Zhongyan was in charge of Qingzhou, he was also the chief officer of Huanqing Road. When Li Yuanhao raised his army, he contacted the Qiang tribes and agreed to more than 600 chiefs of Huanqing Road as the guide. After Fan Zhongyan took office, he rewarded the Qiang tribes in the name of the court, signed a treaty with them, and strictly enforced rewards and punishments. The Qiang tribes thus left the Western Xia and served for the Song Dynasty. In order to further stabilize the border defense, Fan Zhongyan built Dashun City and stopped the enemy's invasion in the Baibao City and the entire Tangcheng area. At the same time, he repaired the Xiyao, Hulu and other military blocks, cut off the enemy's accession, and enabled Mingzhu and Zang tribes to join the Song Dynasty with peace of mind.

Fan Zhongyan made clear orders and loved soldiers. He sincerely accepted and trusted the Qiang people who came to surrender. The Qiang people liked Fan Zhongyan very much and called him Laozi Longtu. This was because Fan Zhongyan was the direct scholar of Longtu Pavilion and managed the border defense of the western front. The northwest front he established was as solid as a golden soup, and the Xia people dared not invade. There was a song in the northwest border singing: "There is a Fan in the army, and the Western thieves were shocked when they heard it." The Xia people called him "Lao Fan", thinking that "Lao Fan has 100,000 soldiers in his chest!"

When Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the governor of Binzhou, he once went upstairs to drink and saw several people wearing mourning clothes to create funeral instruments. Fan Zhongyan sent someone to inquire and found out that a scholar died in Binzhou and was preparing to bury nearby, but the tomb, coffin and funeral instruments had not been prepared. Fan Zhongyan was very sad and immediately took the banquet and gave him money to make him have funerals.

During the Qingli period, Zhang Hai led his troops to attack Huainan and passed by Gaoyou. Chao Zhongyue, the Gaoyou Zhijun, was probably unable to resist, so he asked the local rich people to donate money and drink to comfort him. Zhang Hai was very happy, so he left Gaoyou without committing violence. The matter spread and the court was very angry. Fu Bi suggested to execute Chao Zhongyue. Fan Zhongyan said: "If the county and county forces are sufficient to deal with the battle or defend, and if they are not resisted and bribed, the Zhijun must be executed in legal terms. But the actual situation is that Gaoyou's troops are insufficient and there is no way to resist. Killing Zhijun under such circumstances is not the original intention of legislation." Zhao Zhen accepted Fan Zhongyan's opinion and pardoned Chao Zhongyue.

Fan Zhongyan was very rigorous in his studies. Once, he wrote an epitaph for someone. After finishing writing, he was about to send it out, and suddenly he thought: "This article must be remembered, and Yin Zhu must read it.

.” So it was not issued. The next day, Fan Zhongyan gave the inscription to Yin Zhu for a look. After reading it, Yin Zhu said, "Your articles are already very famous. Later generations will use your articles as examples, and you cannot be careless. Now you write the Transfer Authority as the governor and the governor as the prefect. Although it is elegant and ancient, there are no official titles now. Later generations must be confused, which is the reason why the vulgar literati argued." After hearing this, Fan Zhongyan sighed and said, "Thank you to read it, otherwise I would have made a mistake."

Fan Zhongyan was very strict in managing his family and taught his children to be honest and self-cultivated, accumulate virtue and do good deeds. Once, Fan Zhongyan asked his second son Fan Chunren to transport wheat from Suzhou to Sichuan. When Fan Chunren came back, he met his acquaintance Shi Manqing. When he learned that he had a funeral with his relatives, he had no money to transport the coffin back home, so he gave him a boat of wheat to help him return home. Fan Chunren returned home and did not dare to mention this matter.

Fan Zhongyan asked him if he had met any friends in Suzhou. Fan Chunren replied, "When he passed by Danyang, he met Shi Manqing. He had no money to transport the coffin back to his hometown because of the funeral of my relatives, and was trapped there." Fan Zhongyan said, "Why don't you give him all the wheat on the boat?" Fan Chunren replied, "I have given it to him." Fan Zhongyan was very happy after hearing this.

Fan Zhongyan was also good at identifying people and liked to recommend people. When Di Qing was a low-level officer, Fan Zhongyan valued him very much and gave him the "Zuo Chunqiu" and said: "A general does not know the past and present, and is the courage of every man." From then on, Di Qing studied in a short period of time, proficient in military tactics, and became a famous general of a generation.

When Fan Zhongyan was the prefect of Hangzhou, most of the civil and military officials in the city were recommended by him. Su Lin was not promoted because he was a patrol officer in another county and was not in the city. Su Lin felt very uncomfortable when he saw his colleagues around him, no matter who had higher or lower positions than him. However, no one paid attention to him.

Su Lin was worried that he was forgotten by Lord Fan. What should I do? He couldn't go directly to Lord Fan to talk about such a thing, but he was unwilling to accept it. For this reason, he was very depressed. One day, he finally came up with a tactful way, which was to write a poem to ask Lord Fan for advice, and in fact reminded him: Don't forget yourself! Thinking of this, Su Lin was happy. He hurriedly took out the paper and wrote the poem seriously, and presented the poem to Fan Zhongyan, humbly asking him for advice.

Fan Zhongyan read Su Lin's poem and soon smiled. He recited the poem "The moon is the first to approach the water, and the flowers and trees are easy to make spring when facing the sun", and understood Su Lin's implication. Yes! How could he forget him? Soon, Su Lin was promoted.

In the second year of Qingli, the Liao Kingdom sent envoy Xiao Temo and Liu Liufu to the Song capital Bianliang, asking for the former place in Guannan, and asked the Song Dynasty to send troops to attack Xixia, and mentioned the reasons for adding guards along the border. The court ordered the Zhizhi Gong Fu Bi to take the envoy outside the capital to welcome the envoy.

Fu Bi's courtesy name is Yanguo, and is from Luoyang. On the 20th day of the first lunar month of the first year of Jingde, Fu Bi was born in Luoyang. At first, his mother, Han, was pregnant. She dreamed of flags, cranes and geese landing in the courtyard, saying that it was God's forgiveness, and soon gave birth to Fu Bi. When he was young, he insisted on studying and was generous. When Fan Zhongyan saw him, he said in surprise: "This is the emperor's assistant talent." He gave Wang Zeng and Yan Shu read the article. Yan Shu also liked him very much and married his daughter to him.

Zhao Zhen restored the system, Fan Zhongyan said to Fu Bi

He said: "You should enter the official career through this way." Mao Caiyi and others were elected, appointed as the chief secretary, and signed the letter to the judge of Heyang. Fan Zhongyan was demoted because of arguing the abolition of the queen. Fu Bi wrote a letter saying: "This is a loss of one stroke and two losses. Even if the position of queen cannot be restored, the position should be returned to Fan Zhongyan." However, it was not adopted.

In the second year of Mingdao, King Li Yuanhao of Xiping became emperor and established the Xia Kingdom. Fu Bi submitted a memorial to state eight things, requesting the killing of the envoy sent by Li Yuanhao. On the first day of the first lunar month of the Kangding year, a solar eclipse occurred. Fu Bi requested the withdrawal of the banquet and dance music, and gave the envoys of Xixia in other halls. The prime minister thought it was not possible, so Fu Bi said: "If the Liao Kingdom does this too, it will be a humiliation of the court."

Later, when he heard that the Liao Kingdom had withdrawn the banquet, Zhao Zhen felt deeply regretful. At this time, he banned ministers and wrote to speak out beyond his post. Fu Bi therefore discussed solar eclipse and tried his best to declare that it would be better to make the feelings of the people smoother than to deal with changes in the celestial phenomena, so Zhao Zhen lifted the ban again.

Xia Shouyun was appointed as the capital of Shaanxi, and he also appointed Wang Shouzhong, the head of the capital. Fu Bi said: "Appointing Xia Shouyun has been ridiculed by the people of the world. Now he has appointed Wang Shouzhong, which is no different from the military supervisor of the Tang Dynasty. Can Lu Shouqin and Huang Dehe fail still be repeated?" Zhao Zhen then ordered the removal of Wang Shouzhong. He also requested that the prime minister also lead the Privy Council.

At this time, two leaders from Xixia came to surrender, and the court gave them a job. Fu Bi said that they should give them generous rewards so that they could persuade others to come and surrender. When the matter came to the Secretariat, the prime minister did not know about this at first. Fu Bi sighed and said, "Is this a small matter? But the prime minister didn't know!" He tried his best to talk about this matter, so he followed Fu Bi's advice.

After Fu Bi became the chief edict, he inspected criminal cases in the capital. Among the officials, there were forged monk lists, and Kaifeng Prefecture did not dare to punish them. Fu Bi requested to arrest the officials and handed them over to the prisoner, but Prime Minister Lu Yijian was quite displeased with this.

Xiao Temo and others came up high and dismounted to meet. Originally, the envoys were supposed to send a decree to express condolences, but Xiao Temo and others stubbornly refused to worship. Fu Bi said in a voice: "The two lords of the north and the south are called brothers, and my lord is equal to your lord. Now my lord sends an order to comfort you, why don't you worship?" Xiao Temo was sick and could not salute.

Fu Bi said again: "I have also been on the north side and are sick in the car. But when I hear your Lord's order, I will get up immediately and accept all the rituals. How can you abandon the rituals because of your illness? Xiao Temo had nothing to answer, so I had to bow down. After the worship, he followed Fu Bi to the capital. Fu Bi invited him into the guest hall and talked to him openly and openly. Xiao Temo was very happy and said to Fu Bi one by one. Fu Bi argued with reason, and Xiao Temo said to Fu Bi: "Your country can follow, but you can't follow, either increase coins or get married." Fu Bi then brought the two to pay homage to the emperor and submitted Xiao Temo's words.

Zhao Zhen then summoned Lu Yijian to discuss, and Lu Yijian said, "Before the Western Xia Dynasty was pacified, the Liao Kingdom took the opportunity to seek the land, and it was difficult to allow it. But since I have fought with Xia, I should not fight against the Liao Kingdom again. Now I am here to send Xiao Temo. Since there is a marriage bride and increase the coins, we can tell him secretly. We can only agree to one thing for the time being, but we cannot agree to other things."

Zhao Zhen said, "I mean the same, but who can be a follow-up envoy?" Lu Yijian said, "It's better to send Fu Bi. He had been to Liao Kingdom last year and could be called a familiar person. This time he went there, it would probably not be a disgrace to the mission."
Chapter completed!