Volume 2 Chapter 6 Human Heart (Part 2)
"Not only that, there is one more thing." Zhang Jun stopped beside the empty government office road, looked at the government office not far behind him, and then looked at the intersection where the crowd gathered a few hundred steps ahead, but shook his head seriously. "Did you know that Han Shizhong's servant came to see me this morning?"
Liu Ziyu nodded immediately: "When the Xiantai found me just now, he told me that it was fortunate that Han Shizhong was thoughtful and did not let the attendant mention the summons last night, otherwise the Xiantai would have to rest today."
"Then do you know what the servant said to me?"
"Please give me some advice, Your Excellency." Under the bright sun in the morning, Liu Ziyu had somewhat dissipated his previous resentment.
"The attendant told me that General Han heard that the emperor was poor, and that he would give out the tributes his subordinates paid to him, so he had nothing to use, and sometimes he only lit one candle at night... He also had some captured items at the front, and wanted to pay them back, but was afraid that the emperor would not use them, so he asked me how to deal with it."
"I must have seen it last night." Liu Ziyu thought of Zhang Jun's story and suddenly realized it. He sighed again. "I have been accompanying him for many days and have heard some of the stories, but I didn't expect the emperor's family to be so poor..."
"It's not just hardship." Zhang Jun was increasingly helpless. "Yan Xiu, you really need to have a higher vision... In times of national crisis, who doesn't feel hardship? Here, you can't get paid for half a year, but many people bring their families with them. Before arriving in Huainan, they treat a meal of ginger and fermented black beans as a treasure. Isn't that hardship? Even you, Liu Ziyu, just settled your family down, and you came from the southeast to the imperial court, traveling thousands of miles alone. Isn't that hardship? I just want to ask you, why don't you feel hardship?"
"My father hanged himself to save the country, my second brother's family died slowly, my sister-in-law and three nephews all died in the chaos. With national hatred and family feuds, how could I care about whether I lived in poverty or not?" Liu Ziyu almost blurted out.
"Isn't the emperor burdened with national hatred and family feuds?" Zhang Jun sighed again.
Liu Ziyu looked around and saw a group of imperial guards walking away in armor and swords. He frowned slightly and said, "Does the royal family have such friendship? What's more, there was the strange incident of falling into the well. I heard that the emperor has rarely been moved by the north since then, and has not rescued the two saints. It seems that he is not in harmony with his father and brother."
"Is this the rumor in the southeast ?" Zhang Deyuan paused noticeably.
"Before the great victory in Shouzhou, there were quite a few rumors like this, and even more afterward. But they were all spread in a positive light. After all, what good reputation can the Two Saints have in the southeast?"
"That's fine." Zhang Deyuan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "In fact, everyone here knows that the emperor's words are indeed quite disrespectful to the two emperors. Previously, he forbade us to negotiate peace with the Jin people, and forbad us to talk about returning the two emperors before restoring the two rivers. A few days ago, he even said on the road that the disaster of Jingkang was caused by the two emperors coming before the world... With such an attitude, it is normal to hear such words in the southeast. But Yanxiu, think about it, if you don't have resentment, why would you do this? And since you have resentment, you still care about it to some extent. But the emperor may not only care about one person."
"That makes sense." Liu Ziyu also took a deep breath. "The Jingkang Incident was an unprecedented shame, so it's normal for the emperor to feel resentment and hatred... But isn't it a good thing that the emperor has the ambition to be like Gou Jian?"
"It's a good thing, but it's not a good thing either." Zhang Jun shook his head repeatedly. "This is the key point I want to make. In my opinion, it's right for the emperor to focus on restoring the country and avenging the humiliation, but if there is only one thought of restoring the country and avenging the humiliation, what's the point of not thinking about other things? You, Liu Ziyu, have national hatred and family feuds, and you are irreconcilable with the Jin people. Don't you care about your relatives, family members, and old friends in your hometown? A few days ago, there was a riot in Jianzhou. Didn't you ask me about the relevant incident? Among the ministers in the imperial court, who doesn't want to have a higher official rank? Even the humble and courteous Prime Minister Lu, when he heard that Prime Minister Li was not coming, didn't he also take advantage of the situation and recognize Nanyang? But what about the emperor?"
"Officials..."
"Mr. Lu told me that the emperor was extremely selfish before and after he fell into the well... But in my opinion, the emperor was selfish before he fell into the well, but he was not selfish at all in his actions afterwards. It was just that he was selfish, or he was both public and private. It was hard to tell." Zhang Jun said seriously. "One piece of evidence is that since the emperor fell into the well, he has only been focused on resisting the Jin and restoring the country. He has thrown away all his wealth, treasures, women, and even his own life."
"That's right." Liu Ziyu was also thoughtful. "For example, Li Boji, the prime minister, is now left in the southeast. People in the southeast say that he has a hard time speaking out because the emperor has entrusted the heir and the queen mother to him. As a minister, what else can he do except to serve him wholeheartedly? On the other hand, which emperor would entrust the implicit power of deposing and enthroning to a minister, if it's not for the sake of resisting the Jin? But..."
"But how can a twenty-year-old bear such behavior?" Zhang Jun finally said what he really wanted to say. "The emperor is too tired... He was like a puppet when Li Xianggong was here, and he was so nervous during the battle in Shouzhou. When he went west, he was nervous and worried that he would not do well. You must know that when you and I were twenty years old, how could we shoulder the world on our shoulders?"
"But the emperor is the emperor after all."
"The emperor is also a human being, and the current emperor was just leisurely and free before he was twenty years old." Zhang Jun was increasingly helpless. "You people only think that he is the emperor, and think that he should be a saint, but you don't treat him as a human being... A strong man comes and asks him to make a woodcarving, a mature man comes and complains that he is too reckless in resisting the Jin and asks him to consider the overall situation, and a reckless man comes and wants him to be wise and powerful. Little do you know that if you keep doing this, the emperor will be unable to hold back in the future and will go back to being like Nanjing (Shangqiu) in the past, choosing laundry women and avoiding war. What can you do? Do you want to push the Prince of Xin in Wumashan in the north or the heir who has only been in Yangzhou for a few months? Will Han Liangchen and Zhang Boying agree?!"
Liu Ziyu frowned slightly, as if he didn't want to get involved in this topic, but he had to ask: "So, you want me to stay and strengthen the center?"
"What else?" Zhang Jun smiled helplessly. "In the current situation, as a minister, I can't choose a concubine for the emperor and persuade him to pay less attention to state affairs and get more sun, right? The only thing I can do is to recommend talents as much as possible, so that people like you, Yan Xiu, can stay by the emperor's side and help him make plans, so that he can do things with less twists and turns..."
Liu Ziyu sighed, as if he was convinced, but he still couldn't help feeling a little depressed.
"No matter what, the safety of the country now depends on this person. Only when the emperor is stable can the country be stable!" Zhang Jun said earnestly. "I myself would like to go out and govern a place and do something big, but at least we have to wait until the emperor is completely settled and has rules and regulations in place before we can do that, right?"
After hearing this, Liu Ziyu could only nod his head reluctantly and said no more.
Moreover, Zhang Jun's remarks were mostly his own conjectures. Moreover, as the emperor's personal confidant, the so-called top confidant among the civil officials, his stance was clearly on the emperor's side. Even though Liu Ziwu had been on very good terms with him these days, he did not completely believe him.
However, there was one sentence that Zhang Deyuan said that hit the nail on the head, which was that the emperor who traveled west after the victory in Shouzhou was obviously a little uneasy and didn't know what to do... This was understandable, because Zhao Jiu had never seriously been a proper official, and didn't know how to be an official.
As soon as he came, he was immediately isolated by several people. After he finally broke free, he just sat there waiting for Li Gang. Li Gang came and acted like a puppet. After Li Gang fell ill, he was just feeling extremely depressed, so he decided to throw away the jar and ran to Huaishang to fight a battle with the help of Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun... After winning the battle, this Emperor Zhao also calmed down. Logically, he should have been a good official. However, on the one hand, the roads were unstable and Nanyang could not be settled, so no one had the heart to teach him how to do things; on the other hand, the Battle of Shouzhou had added some color to Emperor Zhao, and not everyone had the courage to teach him how to be an official, so he has the current impetuous situation.
And this was exactly the important reason why Emperor Zhao made the foolish decision to keep Wanyan Yinshuke. He seemed to have determined that the only "serious thing" in resisting the Jin Dynasty was fighting, so he was somewhat happy to hear about the enemy.
Back to the present, Emperor Zhao himself, perhaps because of stupidity or because he was in the middle of a situation, did not think so much. On the contrary, he slept soundly until the afternoon and received a good news, which cheered him up - it was because the governor of Tokyo, deputy commander of the Supreme Commander's Office and Privy Councilor Zong Ze came to make another memorial, and the content of the memorial was exciting.
It was very clear in the letter from Grandpa Zong that Huazhou was completely recovered by him, and Qingzhou and Weizhou in the east of Jingdong Road were also definitely abandoned by the Jin people. Now they are occupied by a man named Li Cheng... In short, the large-scale withdrawal of the Jin people is a foregone conclusion. As long as Emperor Zhao occupies the city well and guards it safely, there is no need to worry about Wanyan Yinshu. The latter may continue to attack, but if he fails, he will definitely go north.
Of course, at the end of the letter, one cannot help but ask Emperor Zhao again whether he will come to Tokyo or not.
Not to mention the important information in the first half, just the politeness in the latter part almost made Zhao Jiu cry for joy... You have to know, it has been more than half a year since he traveled through time. Except for the period when Li Gang was in power, Grandpa Zong has sent twelve invitation letters to him, Emperor Zhao, asking him to return to the old capital to settle down, an average of one letter every half a month.
The previous eleven letters were all about national justice and loyalty and filial piety, and they were all about "the great unification of our ancestors is hard to achieve" and "a small palace has been built for the two saints, and the emperor will live in the old palace." Every sentence was accurately poking someone's spine, and the moral kidnapping was so smooth that it was difficult for Emperor Zhao to explain. In addition, Tokyo already had so many soldiers and so much food and fodder, and was waiting for the emperor to come here to reorganize the six divisions to cross the river to the north!
But this time, it was the first time that Emperor Zhao had received such a polite invitation.
What does this mean? This means that after the battle of Shouzhou, and after Emperor Zhao's swift and decisive actions after the battle, all the way to Ruyang, the world's number one general who was stationed in Tokyo in the north finally began to trust Emperor Zhao!
The only reason he was embarrassed was that he kept on inviting her. Of course, it was understandable that a man in his seventies could be a little bit arrogant.
All in all, for the whole world, in the spring of the second year of Jianyan, the Jin Dynasty prospered and expanded further, while the Song Dynasty declined and lost control further... After all, the two routes of Jingdong, Jingxi, and Guanxi were swept, with large-scale casualties. Civilians from all over the country moved south, and the city's storage was plundered. At the same time, several cities in Hebei that insisted on resisting the war were constantly being eliminated.
However, if we only talk about Emperor Zhao and the Emperor, although there are still some disturbances at the moment, the overall situation is still positive.
This is mainly because the troops have been gathered and people's hearts have been united to a certain extent. In addition, according to the remarks of Zong Ze, Han Shizhong and Liu Ziyu, as long as they deal with it properly, Wanyan Yinshu will not be a big problem here. By then, it will be clear that he will be able to establish himself in Nanyang.
The significance of a stable secondary capital to the upper and lower classes is self-evident.
The situation developed in the next few days in a roughly similar way. Without mentioning the ups and downs outside, let's just talk about the situation here. With the recruitment of people sent by Emperor Zhao, many defeated soldiers, bandits, and rebel forces in Caizhou surrendered one after another, and then uniformly accepted the emperor's offer of amnesty.
Among them, although Han Shizhong was not in a hurry to unify and reorganize because Yin Shu's movements were unknown, everyone's sense of security was significantly improved when they saw the map change from enemy territory to their own territory.
After another day or two, good news came from Tangzhou and Yingchang Prefecture. Although the various independent armed forces there did not come forward to agree, as Liu Ziyu said, they had no reason to refuse, but they were mostly hesitant and waiting. I think, as Han Shizhong and Wang De quickly led their troops to approach there, perhaps they should make up their minds.
However, on such a day, on the morning of March 8th, Emperor Zhao was playing chess with his new minister Liu Ziyu and discussing the matter of "Tuduan" when he suddenly saw an unexpected minister.
"I, Hanlin scholar Lin Jingmo, greet the emperor!" Xiaolin, panting and pale, was ushered in by Lan Gui, the chief guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As soon as he saw the emperor, he bowed his head and said something shocking. "When I arrived in Biyang, Tangzhou, I received news that Fan Zhixu was terrified in Nanyang and took the initiative to ask the monk Zongyin stationed in Wuguan to rescue him. As a result, Zhao Zongyin led thousands of soldiers out of the pass and was easily defeated by a small army of the Jin army in the northwest of Nanyang. Zhao Zongyin knew that he had committed a serious crime, so he did not return to Wuguan or go to Nanyang, but fled to Xiangyang to join Fan Qiong! Wuguan has most likely been lost!"
Under the eaves, Zhao Jiu held a chess piece in his hand and remained silent for a while, but he was not angry at all.
"So... Nanyang is not safe?" Liu Ziyu, who had already stood up to avoid Xiaolin, blurted out. "Because this time the Jin army can take Nanyang without any worries, and then return to Guanxi from Wuguan at ease."
Zhao Jiu still didn't say anything, but felt a little powerless... What could he say?
Han Shizhong, Zong Ze, Liu Ziyu, and even himself and other people in the imperial court had tried their best. The breathless scholar Kobayashi had even taken the risk before. However, they still could not withstand a demon-like monk.
"Your Majesty!" Scholar Xiao Lin hesitated for a moment, but still managed to speak again. "Liu Yan went to Ruzhou in the north to find General Han... He asked me to come back and tell your Majesty to be careful that the Jin army will not go to Nanyang, but will take advantage of the situation to take Ruyang! Because now that the Jin army has a retreat in the west, the previous arrangements to cut off the Jin army's retreat in Ruzhou and Yingchang Prefecture in the north are a burden."
Emperor Zhao suddenly raised his head, but surprisingly he did not look too flustered: "I understand."
