Chapter 413: Lusong Island
Off the coast of Keelung on Yizhou Island, the fleet of Zhao Bing, the false emperor of the Song Dynasty, had been sailing for three days.
Shi Lang immediately returned to the ship after receiving Huo Fenghuang's Huo Xiang Li Qi Pills and a large amount of medicinal materials. Zhao Bing was overjoyed after returning to report. Don't underestimate this black little pill. With this life-saving magic medicine, his queen and concubines' summer heat disease was cured immediately, and they stood in front of him with all kinds of charm.
Even the small rulers of Ryukyu benefited greatly.
Zhao Bing showed him special favor and rewarded him with a box of Qi-regulating pills. After trying them out in the palace, they were very effective and immediately stopped the spread of summer heat disease in the palace.
However , Zhao Bing still had to leave.
This fellow received the letter that Shi Lang passed on to him and knew that it was written by Zhao Yulin's wife named Huo Fenghuang. There was no scolding or cursing in the letter, but only talked about how her husband was like a god, how he was not afraid of death, how he worked hard to revitalize Sichuan and Shu, and how he established a huge Shenwei Army to resist the Mongolian army.
She believes that every man has ambitions and wants to do great things, and she hopes that he can be a real man.
After reading the letter, Zhao Bing remained silent for three days, and then ordered the ship to sail south.
His royal guards took advantage of the chicken coop again and ate and took away the food. They even did not let go of the women from the Ryukyu Kingdom's palace and got a group of women on board, then hoisted the sail and headed south.
The young Ryukyu emperor stood helplessly at the dock to see the former emperor off.
Five days later, Zhao Bing finally saw the huge islands in the south, appearing one after another. Zheng Qilang excitedly reported: Your Majesty, we have arrived, we have arrived, and further south is the Mayi Kingdom.
Zhao Bing thought that he could not defeat the Mongol Empire in the north and had to watch Zhao Qi'er grow stronger in the west, so he was forced to flee to the sea. He has been displaced ever since. He could not help but sigh and said: Let's call this place Lusong Island, we Song people are here.
From then on, this large archipelago south of Yizhou was called Lusong Island, and Zhao Bing simply raised the flag of the Lusong Kingdom.
On the north bank of the Yangtze River, in Hefei City, Luzhou, Zhang Qi came running happily.
Zhao Yulin saw his proud look and said, "Are you happy that you have recovered such a large territory in one go?"
Zhang Qi said happily, "How could I be so happy? I was absolutely ecstatic. I was so happy, hahahaha."
Zhao Yulin asked the guards to make tea for him, and said with a smile that he should not be too happy, and should quickly make sure that all places with favorable winds were well protected. There were the enemy's eyes and ears everywhere, so he could not be careless.
Zhang Qi nodded in agreement and told him that he came for this matter and that General Meng wanted to use the person in charge from our Shenwei Army.
Zhao Yulin said that this was not possible. That was because General Meng trusted our Shenwei Army, and we must never do that. Anyone who supports our new Song country's new social concept and is willing to work for the country must stay and be used.
Zhang Qi nodded in agreement again.
He began to search on his desk and antique shelf.
He smiled and asked: "Hey, what are you looking for? I only have a box of Longjing tea to take away."
This guy is so shameless that he says he is looking for it. How can he explain to his brothers if he doesn't take something back from me?
After saying that, he grabbed the Longjing tea, bowed to Zhao Yulin and ran away.
Zhao Yulin liked this guard very much. He was smart and not rigid, and he did a good job. He smiled and watched Zhang Qi walk away before going back.
Fan Zhong came over and saw that he was very happy, so he asked him what good news he had.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that it was not a good news, it was just that his former guards came back.
Fan Zhong praised him for caring for his subordinates and told him that due to the war in Jiangbei and Lianghuai, there were too many vacancies of county officials. Chengdu had urgently transferred more than 400 people from academies and government offices at all levels across the country. Even if he and Meng Gong calculated the number, it would still be far from enough.
Zhao Yulin believed that in the past this place was managed by generals who were good at wielding swords and guns. Now that it was safe, there would naturally be more vacancies after the troops were transferred away.
He suggested restoring the state and county levels first, at least to prevent chaos below.
Fan Zhong told him that Meng Gong had the same idea, that is, to first build a framework so that there are people to do the work and to be in charge, and the common people can find the government.
Fan Zhong asked him for people. Garrisons and patrols needed to be set up in various places, and a large number of manpower was needed. It was just right to use the demobilized soldiers in the army.
He asked Miao Gui to send a message and ask the Ministry of War to handle it.
After finishing the serious business, Fan Zhong just focused on drinking tea, and was reluctant to leave.
Zhao Yulin felt strange and wondered what was so difficult for him to talk about.
The two of them felt very uncomfortable sitting like this, but Zhao Yulin couldn't help asking him: "Mr. Fan, what's the problem? Just tell me."
The old man then pointed to the south and began to talk about the historical prime minister of Lin'an, asking, "Brother, what do you want to do with him?"
Haha, it turns out that the matter in Jiangbei has come to an end, and the old man is starting to worry about Jiangnan again.
He said that we should just leave the oral instruction from Lord Cao there for the time being and let's put it aside until we recover the entire Central Plains.
Fan Zhong said cautiously that Meng Gong thought the matter should not be delayed for a long time. Shi Xiang openly said that he would not raise troops and would only take care of taxes and people's livelihood, but secretly he was training troops and building ships in the hinterland of Liangzhe. He must be raising an army to resist.
If we allow it to grow in power, it will bring disaster to all lives.
Oh, he is saying that Meng Gong is depressed. It turns out there is a reason behind this.
Looking at his expression, Zhao Yulin guessed that they both had doubts and were worried that in the future the Shenwei Army and the Lin'an regime would fight a life-and-death battle for the cause of unification, and the common people would suffer.
He took a sip of tea before saying that he would first sort out things here.
He believed that Shi Xiang could be the pacification envoy of Liangzhe, but the army in Lin'an must be reorganized and commanded by the new Song Dynasty's Ministry of War. The administration of Lin'an must also be reformed in accordance with the rules of the new Song Dynasty. A country must unify personnel, finance, laws and the army to be called a country, and no one is allowed to mess around.
Of course, there are too many things to do, don't rush, we have plenty of time, so take your time.
When Fan Zhong heard him say this, he was actually happy.
He was not afraid of Zhao Yulin's words about what to do, but was afraid that Zhao Yulin would not say a word and would not know what to do. The old man happily said that he would go and discuss it with Meng Gong.
Zhao Yulin said, "Why bother? Let's go to Meng Gong's place for tea."
Fan Zhong happily took his hand and went out together.
The two men came to Meng Gong's residence and sat down to discuss the situation. Meng Gong was very happy. He told Zhao Yulin that he had worked with Shi Xiang in the past. Shi Xiang had connections in the Lin'an court and was good at making connections. He did a lot of good things for Jinghu's resistance against the Mongols.
But this person is arrogant and is determined to keep his father's position above everyone else. His methods are indeed a bit despicable. He even framed me.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that all that was in the past. If Meng Gong was willing to help them, he could choose a day to go to Lin'an to take a look. He could talk in any way as long as they were willing to return safely.
I believe Lord Cao will agree.
Meng Gong was overjoyed when he heard that Zhao Yulin had given him this confirmation. He happily said that he would go to Lin'an when he had time. No matter how many more requests Shi Xiang made, the army must be handed over.
Zhao Yulin finally understood that what Fan Zhong said was true.
Meng Gong and Shi's son had worked together for a long time and had a deep friendship. He really wanted to help Shi's son and pull him back from the brink of war. After thinking it through, he didn't care what Meng Gong said and told him to go. He believed that Shi Gong was sensible and concerned about the overall situation.
Shi's son deliberately harmed Zhao Yulin, which benefited him a lot. Although he was extremely reluctant , he still uttered the two words "Mr. Shi" with difficulty to show his friendliness.
In Chengdu, Jinguan City has been fully renovated. The centralized office area is much larger and has fewer luxurious royal living quarters. The offices of all court officials are arranged in an orderly manner.
In the name of maintaining confidentiality, the Central Government specially numbered the buildings in the form of Zhao numbers. All the important officials of the Central Court lived in and worked in the third floor of the ninth courtyard in the middle building at the back, and all the officials of the New Song Dynasty court moved in.
Zhu Gongshen was about to hold an inauguration ceremony for the new imperial city, but was stopped by Cao Youwen.
His reason was that there were continuous wars at the front and they had to save money to deal with the wars. Everyone had a simple meal in the meeting hall and then moved.
However, after the new court moved in and the Central Court officially moved into Courtyard No. 9, the first thing to discuss gave Lao Cao a headache.
Chen Chen, the prefect of Xiangyang , wrote a letter to the court, reporting that he had discovered that he had accepted Yu Zhu'er, the chief clerk of Zhejiang and Sichuan, while punishing the case of delaying military affairs in Zhejiang and Sichuan, and had committed the crime of accepting bribes, and requested the court to punish him.
The Inspectorate received a detailed report of the incident and believed it to be true and the evidence was irrefutable. The prefect Chen Chen should be punished.
This really stumped Lao Cao.
He knew very well that Chen Chen was Zhao Yulin's beloved wife. The couple often kissed each other unscrupulously and showed their affection in public. He was worried that Zhao Yulin would be unhappy no matter how he handled the matter.
He was very embarrassed and asked everyone to speak out, but the huge conference room was completely silent. Who dared to talk about Zhao Yulin's woman?
This made the atmosphere in the meeting room awkward.
Later, Song Ci, the chief judge of Dali Temple who was sitting in the back row, raised his hand to speak.
He believed that Prefect Chen's action was unintentional.
He checked the case files and found that the gift giver had clearly stated that the gift was exquisite porcelain, and Prefect Chen was collecting the porcelain. He had neither cashed in for silver nor done anything for the gift giver that would damage the interests and rules of the court. He should be innocent.
The gentlemen then slowly started to discuss the matter. Some thought that what Song Ci said made sense, as the man had indeed not done anything to harm the country.
Some people think that Song Ci is speaking well of Chen Chen. How can delaying military affairs be a joke? How can the main person responsible for such a big thing not have any responsibility at all?
Chen Chen even beheaded the gift giver himself. Isn't this just an attempt to cover up one's mistake?
The discussions in the hall were getting louder and louder. Yangjin saw Lao Cao looking at her and realized that Lao Cao was not in a position to speak, so she struggled to find a way out.
Yangjin is very smart. She knows very well that Cao Youwen is unwilling to punish Chen Chen, but in the court, there is solid evidence that Chen Chen committed the crime, and he must give everyone an explanation.
Just kidding, it’s a big jade pig made of Kunlun jade.
In later times, it would be a rare and precious piece of Hetian jade, but it is also the top jadeware of the Celestial Empire. It is not priceless, but it is more than priceless.
How can we convince the public if we don’t punish Chen Chen?
