Volume 2 Chapter 13 Nanyang (Part 1)
Although some people kept saying that they would travel light into Nanyang, in fact, when Emperor Zhao led the people into Nanyang City in the late spring when the flowers were falling, he still had countless regrets.
For example, he did not get to meet Niu Gao, whom he particularly wanted to meet this time. This local armed leader who was originally an archer from Ruzhou was easily recruited by the Zhai brothers from Xijing with the offer of a "recommendation for an official position". At this time, he was on his way to support Xijing as a small envoy of Baoyilang, and had no idea that if he had gone north a few days later, he could at least have become the commander of the imperial camp.
For another example, Zhao Jiu knew very well that the reforms that were hastily carried out to unify power and responsibilities and establish a wartime headquarters had too many confusing aspects and must have contained many private agendas of the prime ministers. As an official, he was constrained by his own shortcomings and could not figure out the twists and turns in a short period of time, so he had no choice but to choose to bear the new institutional loopholes that might arise in the future.
For example, perhaps because this reform required the cooperation of the ministers' power, Zhao Jiu was ultimately unable to kill Fan Zhixu, whom he particularly wanted to kill, but instead demoted him to Zunyi Village... Yes, after subsequent investigations, the ministers confirmed one thing, that is, this Zunyi Army had long been downgraded to Zunyi Village... But it didn't matter, Emperor Zhao would watch from the sidelines to see if this man could live to soak his feet in Zunyi.
But these regrets are just regrets after all. Nanyang City is right in front of us, so there is no need to think about it anymore.
And on that day, when Emperor Zhao had marked out the camp site outside the city, assigned the soldiers of the imperial camp, and then led the civil and military officials into Nanyang City, the entire imperial court was still immersed in an almost shocking sense of happiness, satisfaction, and security... Many people covered their faces and cried on the way, and then, without even waiting to enter the palace, the ministers jointly submitted a petition, demanding that the emperor must follow Zhang Que's example and give Liu Ji, the Jingxi Transport Envoy, a position of deputy prime minister of the capital province (the name of the East Palace after the four provinces were merged), otherwise they would be ashamed and fidget.
In response to this, Zhao Jiu naturally responded readily. He opened his mouth and changed the transport envoy to the governor and pacifier of the Southwest Road of the Capital.
Now, Liu Ji is the deputy prime minister and the general manager and pacification envoy, which makes him look like an envoy like Li Gang and Zong Ze... Of course, the meaning is still the same. He is still the military and political chief of the southwest road of Beijing, and he still has to be in charge of the coordination of material transportation from the Yangtze River Basin to the secondary capital of Nanyang in Xiangyang. The key is that his rank is much higher, and Liu Ji and everyone in the imperial court are also much happier. Why not do it?
But to be fair, Zhao Jiu's promotion was not to fool people according to his own political logic, because Liu Ji had done a lot of work that was visible to the naked eye...
You must know that according to the arrangement made in June last year, the strategy of making Nanyang the secondary capital was decided, and all the normal material surrenders from the Sichuan and Shu areas were intercepted here in Nanyang. Sichuan and Shu were almost unscathed throughout the turmoil, so there is no need to say more about the financial and material resources.
So Liu Ji made use of the material resources of Sichuan and Shu, the local manpower, and gathered a large number of craftsmen to expand the city wall in Nanyang, build a temporary palace, and then set up exclusive warehouses for gold, silver, money, cloth, grain, and specialties to store supplies. At this moment, in the warehouse, at least grain and cloth were piled up like mountains!
Not only that, as the emperor was delayed in arriving, he even built the Imperial College and the offices of important departments on both sides of the palace, and even built a residential area along the river in the south of the city for officials and their families to live in!
With such regulations, how could the industry not be filled with gratitude?
You must know that if you count from the beginning of last year, the main officials in the Xingzai have been wandering for more than a year! And half of the time they were in a predicament of material shortages... Is it fake that the gold powder that Zhao Guanjia scrapes off the Taoist and Buddha's bodies every day?
In fact, just a few days ago, when the emperor left Fangcheng Mountain, he did not forget to have his people loot the temples and Taoist temples on Fangcheng Mountain and steal the monks' and Taoists' wealth and book printing tools, but none of the emperor's entourage stopped him... At that time, the local officials in Nanyang thought that the emperor and the emperor had reached a consensus on learning the lessons of the two saints and were going to destroy Buddhism and Taoism. In fact, it was just a habit of some people who had become accustomed to being poor.
If the important officials in the imperial court really knew that Nanyang had such abundant supplies, I'm afraid some of them would have stopped Emperor Zhao and urged him to stop doing such robbery.
Of course, after settling down in Nanyang that day, many officials couldn't help but sigh when they thought about it the other way around... If Emperor Zhao hadn't fought the battle on the Huai River, if Li Yanxian of Shanzhou hadn't just created a military miracle, what would have been the fate of this reassuring city before Wanyan Yinshu's death?
It will end up like Tokyo!
"Is the emperor not in the palace?"
A day later, after the officials' salaries were reissued and last night's grand dinner in the name of summoning local elders, many important officials in the capital who had resumed their normal work on March 22 could not help but feel a little slack. However, when they arrived at the palace on time that day, they were awakened by the emperor again.
"Let all the gentlemen know." Lan Gui, the chief guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who stayed here, looked helpless , but could only face the situation helplessly. "The emperor left for the barracks outside the city early in the morning under the escort of Xiaolin Xueshi and Yang, who were on duty at night. He also summoned Wang Yuan, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Camp, and Yan Shaoyin, who was the acting governor of Nanyang Prefecture, saying that he would personally go to the Imperial Camp to pay the soldiers' salaries."
"Yang Yizhong should be beheaded!"
In the deserted hall, with the occasional cooing of turtle doves coming from the woods outside the hall, Xu Jingheng was the first to get angry, but he couldn't scold the emperor or the important officials, so he could only scold Yang Yizhong, who could be scolded by everyone. "As a guard, how can I not report to the prime minister when the emperor leaves the city without permission?"
Liu Ji, who was attending such an occasion for the first time, frowned slightly and didn't know what to say... and the men around him could only feel angry in vain after saying "Yang Yizhong should be beheaded".
Let's say the emperor wanted to gain control of the army by paying the soldiers, so the prime ministers naturally had a hard time saying anything. But didn't he just pay the salaries and rewards to the officials yesterday? So this morning the emperor hurriedly skipped everything and went to pay the soldiers himself. Was he disgusted with the prime ministers for not treating everyone equally, or did he want to tell the soldiers that only he, the emperor, remembered the army outside the city?
It’s okay if you sell well yourself, but can you please not step on others to sell well?
"My Lords." Lan Gui hesitated for a moment, but still spoke up to explain. "Before he left, the Emperor had Scholar Xiaolin leave a few proposals on the imperial desk, asking you to make a decision early. When he returns, he will listen to your political discussions in front of the Emperor... I dare not act without permission, so please ask Prime Minister Lu to take them yourself ."
The ministers had no choice but to suppress their anger and read the proposals. However, Lu Haowen picked up the first piece of paper on the table, turned it over, and felt overwhelmed... It turned out that the first piece of paper contained the word "Tuduan"!
The other ministers stepped forward and gasped, but none of them could say anything.
You should know that the term "Tuduan" was a policy of Liu Yu during the Southern Song Dynasty, which mainly refers to the reorganization of household registration in the Southern Dynasty's ruling area under the background of northerners migrating south at that time. At present, the west of Beijing has just been hit by war and there are many refugees. Not only that, looking at the overall situation since the Jingkang period, with the Huaihe River and Qinling Mountains as the boundary, many northerners have fled south, and in the short term, the Song Dynasty does not have the ability to recover lost territory.
At this time, the "local government" to resettle the people who fled to the north and south and register them in the household registration system became extremely important and urgent.
However, having said that, this matter is really too complicated, involving almost every aspect. With so many things to consider, how can we make a decision early?
But it's impossible to let this matter go.
With mixed feelings, Lu Haowen handed the heavy "Tu Duan" note in his hand to Xu Jingheng behind him, then picked up the second note. He felt a headache again, because it turned out that the words "Fan Qiong" were written on it.
Fan Qiong, Fan Qiong, these two names are too familiar to Xingzai. Since Emperor Zhao ascended the throne, Xingzai has been discussing this person, from Nanjing (Shangqiu in later generations) to Bozhou, from Bozhou to Shunchang Prefecture (Yingzhou, Fuyang in later generations), from Shunchang Prefecture to Bagua Mountain, and finally to Nanyang. There is no time to delay!
Fortunately, unlike in the past when people always argued about whether or not to deal with this person, this time, everyone had already reached a consensus that he must be killed and Xiangyang must be taken as a backup... Otherwise, not to mention how the southeast and Jingxiang can communicate effectively, let's just say that if the Jin people invaded the south and Nanyang was in danger, the government would have no way to retreat. What should they do then?
The fact that Emperor Zhao left this man's name at this time certainly did not mean that he wanted the ministers to discuss how to deal with him. Combined with what Emperor Zhao had said before at the foot of Fangcheng Mountain, it was obvious that he wanted everyone to discuss some auxiliary countermeasures to assist Emperor Zhao in going south to Xiangyang and eradicating this beast.
Only military and national affairs cannot be ignored by the ministers.
Lu Haowen handed the note to the Deputy Privy Councilor Wang Boyan behind him, and then continued to flip through the third note. He saw the word "Sun Mo" again, but he was already numb and directly handed the note to Liu Ji behind him.
By the way, Sun Mo was the governor of Yingchang Prefecture in the southwest of Beijing who had died at the hands of the Jin army. His case had nothing to do with the imperial court, but it was an important unsolved case, mystery, and public case in the local officialdom in western Beijing.
The story goes like this. Before the Jin invaded southward, the post of Tongpan of Yingchang Prefecture was vacant. At that time, Liu Ji sent a document to appoint Pei Zude, who was in mourning, as the Tongpan of Yingchang Prefecture. When the Jin invaded southward, Sun Mo, the prefect, quickly gathered his troops and asked Pei Zude to retreat to Yancheng, the southernmost city of Yingchang Prefecture, for defense. At the same time, he went to Yangdi to pick up his family. In response, Pei Zude defended Yancheng while impeaching Sun Mo for escaping for his own life!
Then, Wanyan Yinshu went south and killed Sun Mo directly in Yangdi, but unexpectedly did not touch Yancheng. Then Zongze heard the news and naturally recommended Pei Zude temporarily, letting him pretend to be in charge of the Secret Pavilion and know Yingchang Prefecture.
So far, it seems that the non-Qu Zhi is very obvious. Sun Mo is in a high position, but he cares about his family at a critical moment. Pei Zude is in charge of the overall situation as a Tongpan, which is obviously a higher level... and Pei Zude is recommended by Liu Ji and Zong Ze, the two most influential bigwigs in western Beijing.
Only Sun Mo chose to die for his country in the end, while Pei Zude survived, so there was nothing more to say.
However, the matter did not end there. Just after Wanyan Yinshuke withdrew from Yancheng, Sun Mo's family actually went to Liu Ji to complain with a document that Sun Mo had not sent before. According to this document, Pei Zude simply heard from others that the Jin people would not come, and then used this false news to deceive Sun Mo and coax him to go to Yangdi... If this is the case, then Pei Zude is a two-faced person, or even a shameless villain who deliberately wants to kill his boss with a borrowed knife!
This matter involved both Liu Ji and Zong Ze. It happened that the reputation of a deceased prefect was involved, causing a lot of discussion. Pei Zude's official position had also been stuck there. When discussing the vacancies in the west of Beijing this time, this matter could not be avoided... So the person who tied the bell must be found to untie it. Liu Ji had no choice but to take the note.
