Volume 4 Chapter 39: Zaocheng
Zhao Jiuxing Bai Ma to build Shaoxing, by dealing with the two saints who were like hemorrhoids, he cleaned up the central bureaucracy. But it does not mean that the matter can be declared accomplished, nor does it mean that this action will not have negative effects.
In fact, the real test comes after the political declaration and the purge.
And that very night, in Zaocheng, which was still in Huazhou, he encountered the first trouble caused by this incident.
"His Majesty."
For some reason, Wulinda Zanmo, the Jin envoy who was brought here by Prime Minister Lu Gong, had a fishy smell when he opened his mouth. "The generals of the Jin Kingdom who fought against all said that your Majesty's behavior was not like that of a blood relative of the Zhao family, but I just learned today that your Majesty is indeed a direct descendant of the Zhao family... May I ask your Majesty, what is the difference between your behavior today and the two saints' past behavior?"
"I've said it all, there is really no breach of contract..." Zhao Jiu, still in his cloth military uniform, said solemnly in the lobby of Zaocheng County Court. "According to the agreement, after the return of the two saints, the five counties in Jingdong must be delivered as the actual basis for the contract, but even if I am waiting for you here, you can't give up the five counties in Jingdong."
"I can probably guess what's going on." Wulinda Zanmo waved his sleeves and sneered. "We were also on guard against the direction of Jinan. Now I think your majesty deliberately exposed the flaw of Jinan and Liu Yu, and then sent Zhang Jun to attack Li Cheng of Qingzhou from Yizhou, the so-called repairing the plank road in the open and sneaking through Chencang in secret... But your majesty, I only have two questions. First, has Qingzhou really been taken now? Does your majesty have accurate military reports? Why do you want to break the agreement and talk about war in person? Second, even if Zhang Jun has taken Qingzhou now and we can't hand over the five counties, but before that, the emperor asked the officials to negotiate peace with me on the one hand, and sent the military officials to attack Qingzhou on the other hand, is it a fair and aboveboard move?"
After these words were spoken, several prime ministers and important officials present felt a little embarrassed, but the military officials obviously did not care.
As for Zhao Jiu, he was silent for a while, and then nodded and said: "I not only sent Zhang Jun, but also Yue Fei... At this moment, there must be losses in the three counties controlled by Li Cheng."
Be it Wulinda Zanmo or the civil and military officials, all of them showed a slight change of color.
Emperor Zhao continued to speak seriously: "As for matters of honor and aboveboard, Lord Wulin, you should be able to see that I have done my best."
“Why should I try my best to convince the world?!” Wulindazanmo came to his senses and continued to look angry.
"Massacre and looting, digging up graves and exposing corpses, moving people to the wild, enclosing land and making slaves... can this convince the world?" Zhao Jiu calmly confronted several military officials before they were about to step out. "After all, Wulin Daqing, the blood feud between Song and Jin is so deep that how can we convince the world with those articles? Even the Jin Kingdom, didn't they negotiate peace because Erliduo and Wuzhu, who were in power, had experienced Yaoshan and knew that the Jurchen army would stop at the river after the battle?"
Wulindazanmo was silent for a moment, skipping over the first half of the Zhao Song emperor's sentence and directly saying, "The Jin army stopped at the Yellow River. Can the Song army still cross the Yellow River? The current situation is that neither country has the confidence to fight across the river. We could have taken the opportunity to let the two countries live together for a few years, and maybe achieve long-term peace. But the emperor wants to let the world down for the past grievances in vain... The foreign minister has been in Tokyo for several months and knows some of the statements in the court reports, but I don't know when the taxes in the south of the Song Dynasty will be reduced?"
"This is not something that Wulin Daqing should worry about..." Zhao Jiu finally lost his patience. "You dragged Nianhan to the door of the Shangshutai and smashed him to death, but you don't know what Xixia, who have always tried to please Nianhan, thinks? What do his old subordinates think? Nianhan fell, but Wuqimai's lineage didn't have an explanation, and was driven out of the Great Wall. It's not certain that they will live in peace... Are we writing ten wins and ten losses here?"
Wulinda Zanmo opened his mouth and could only sigh: "No matter what, after this incident between the two countries, unless there is a major military and political change, it will be extremely difficult to gain the trust of both sides again. And this situation is the work of Emperor Zhao!"
"Then let's do it!" Zhao Jiu said straightforwardly. "Sooner or later, I will sweep the fields and attack Huanglong... After experiencing Jingkang, did Wulin Daqing think that he could serve as an envoy between Song and Jin for seven times and become famous throughout the country?"
Having said this, Wulinda Zanmo shook his head even more but said nothing more.
"Mr. Zhai." Zhao Jiu simply turned his head and looked at the Minister of the Honglu Temple, Mr. Zhai Ruwen, who had always been beside Wulinda Zanmo. "Make good arrangements for Mr. Wulinda to return north."
Zhai Ruwen understood and responded immediately, and then carefully invited Wulinda Zanmo out.
When everyone saw this person leaving, they had different reactions.
"I didn't expect this person to be interesting." Seeing Wulindazanmo leave without saying a word, Qu Duan couldn't help but sigh. "I insulted him in broad daylight, but he didn't even mention it. I don't know if he is just pretending or if he really has guts..."
Zhao Ding, the Prime Minister of the provincial capital, frowned slightly when he heard this: "Now that things have come to this, why are you talking about this!"
Qu Duan smiled awkwardly and said nothing.
"Your Majesty..." Zhao Ding thought for a moment and then bowed. "There are so many things going on today, I shouldn't ask at this time, but some things are related to today's events, so I have to ask."
"I know what you want to ask." Zhao Jiu said sternly. "Just say it."
"May I ask your Majesty, when did Yue and Zhang set out? How many troops did they have?" Seeing the other party's honesty, Zhao Ding relaxed a little. After all, the emperor's power during the day was still there. "Did they really leave Xuzhou, go to Yizhou, enter Qingzhou, and fight Li Cheng?"
"I don't know the exact time." Zhao Jiu answered simply. "In order to keep it secret... I just told them roughly that the two saints would return at the end of the month, and let them make their own decisions without reporting. As for the military strength, I can only say that in order to prevent the Jin people in Jinan from noticing, the two families can only send out about 50,000 troops at most. I don't know the exact number of troops. However, the attack route is indeed to attack Li Cheng in Qingzhou from Yizhou."
This is exactly what I mean by not knowing the answer to any of the three questions.
Zhao Ding frowned, looked back at the Privy Councilor Zhang Jun, and then continued to ask, "May I ask, Your Majesty, how did you conceal the deployment of the front troops of the Imperial Camp from the Privy Council?"
"I didn't hide it from the Privy Council." Zhao Jiu glanced at the Prime Minister Zhang Jun who was hesitant to speak, and answered directly. "I originally wanted to let Zhang Jun, the right army of the Imperial Camp, launch a surprise attack independently, and then use the Imperial Camp Cavalry and the Imperial Camp Central Army to support, but Yue Fei came back too quickly and crossed the river in mid-May, so I changed my mind temporarily and included him. What I did was just to let the Privy Council be careful about the situation in Jingdong, allocate more military resources to Xuzhou, and then arrange for the Imperial Camp Front Army to take the Xuzhou route..."
"Prime Minister Zhao." Zhang Jun also had no choice but to argue. "It's not wrong for Yue Fei to go through Xuzhou when he returned north. The military resources in Xuzhou were increased to guard against Liu Yu. You also nodded in the secret cabinet... The key is, since Yue Pengju crossed the river and returned north, who cared about which way he took? Even if someone cared about him at that time, they only cared about his note! In my opinion, don't ask these questions now. Hurry up and follow the official's previous preparations. Send the Imperial Camp Central Army and the Imperial Camp Cavalry to Jinan to contain the enemy. Then the Imperial Camp Navy should also go downstream to cross the river to blockade it."
"No." Li Qiong, the deputy commander of the Imperial Army, suddenly intervened between the two powerful officials and apologized. "I'm sorry..."
"No problem." Zhao Ding was as calm as ever. "Go ahead."
"So that the gentlemen know." Li Qiong said seriously. "According to the military intelligence from Taihang Mountain, the Hebei direction is divided by the east and west of the old Yellow River. The Jin people's Daming Prefecture in the east and Longde Prefecture (Huguan) in the west both have their main armies. In order to prevent the Jin people from besieging Wei to save Zhao, the Imperial Camp Navy must not go downstream. Moreover, Qingzhou is a surprise attack. With Jinan in the way, it can only be a distraction and cannot affect the actual victory or defeat... Your Majesty." Having said this, Li Qiong bowed to Zhao Jiu again and said, "I am willing to lead my troops and the Eight Character Army to Dongping Prefecture to feint and attack Jingdong. This will be enough to distract Jinan. Even the Imperial Camp Cavalry must stay behind to provide backup support. On the contrary, the logistics in the Xuzhou direction must not be lacking."
Zhao Jiu looked around at the other generals in the hall, and seeing that no one objected, he nodded and agreed: "Let's arrange it like this...you will set off early tomorrow morning."
Li Qiong bowed and retreated.
"That's good." Zhao Ding sighed, knowing that it would be difficult to pursue the matter, but he shook his head. "In terms of Qingzhou's military, besides the urgent need to provide support, there is another matter... Your Majesty, regardless of whether Yue Fei and Zhang Jun succeeded at this time, and regardless of whether we know the battle situation, the court report must be sent out first, saying that Qingzhou has changed hands and Li Cheng was defeated and retreated! And the Jin envoy Wulinda Zanmo knew that the Jin Kingdom could no longer give up the five counties, so he was furious and left north!"
Zhao Jiu was slightly stunned... Is this still possible?
To be honest, he was prepared to break his promise and have his prestige reduced by 300 points as punishment.
"It can be said that he was furious, but also felt that the government's measures were amazing. He left a letter in Zaocheng, saying that he was convinced this time." Qu Duan finally couldn't help but interrupt again, attracting the attention of many generals around him, including Han Shizhong, who wanted to interrupt. "Let the official newspaper publish his letter... Anyway, he can't refute it."
Isn’t this bad?
Zhao Jiu instinctively rejected it.
"You write it!" Zhao Ding turned around again and looked at Qu Duan coldly. "Finish it quickly before midnight tonight, or else the fast horse won't be able to wait! And if there is even a flaw in the article, and it's embarrassing, I will hold you accountable!"
Qu Duan actually nodded in agreement...and Zhao Jiu didn't even have time to interrupt the whole time.
But this was just a small matter after all. Soon, the Prime Minister Zhang Jun also hurriedly responded: "Your Majesty, there is one more matter that must be dealt with as soon as possible..."
Zhao Jiu knew it clearly in his heart, but he couldn't help but frowned slightly: "In fact, I know that after today's incident, there will only be more things to deal with, and I'm afraid there will be more than one thing to deal with."
"But things have their priorities." Zhang Jun responded earnestly.
"That's right." Zhao Jiu sighed slightly, no longer as fierce as he was during the day. "We have to fill the positions quickly, and then we can go back to Tokyo to discuss the southern economy and the burden on the people..."
Zhang Jun was stunned... Not only Zhang Jun, but also Zhao Ding, Lu Haowen who had his eyelids drooping, Liu Ji, Chen Gui, Li Guang who were silent, and even Qu Duan who had just retreated were all stunned.
"Have I forgotten something?" Zhao Jiu immediately sensed something, and then named an unexpected name. "Qu Da! You are both knowledgeable and skilled in both literature and martial arts, so you should know something. Come on and tell me!"
"Your Majesty..." This time, Qu Duan raised his head under the cold stares of all the civil and military . "Your Majesty is right to think about the burden of the South, but I have also dealt with people's livelihood in Guanxi, and I know that no matter how difficult it is, the people dare not rebel, nor can they speak out. At most, they will make up a folk song! And any civil unrest is caused by one reason: they really can't survive, even without food; and another reason is that someone is instigating and gathering. Now that the South has just been pacified, they will definitely not rebel, and they will not resist the taxes that were previously added. At most, they will say that they are on guard against the spread of things like the Vegetable Eating Demon Cult. And the ones who really need to worry are the seventy or eighty people who left today..."
Zhao Jiu thought about it for a moment and immediately came to his senses, but then fell into confusion again.
The reason is very simple. In this era, due to the lack of basic means of transportation and communication, it is impossible for ordinary people in the South to bypass the government and form a large-scale southern anti-tax group. Someone has to organize these people with an organizational structure that goes beyond the basic feudal social framework to create the risk of rebellion.
For example , Fang La was a famous evil cult in Chinese history, the predecessor of the Ming Cult, and the Flower and Stone Gang destroyed the southeast. Zhong Xiang Yang Mo, who was pacified at the beginning of the year, also used local religion and fishery insurance business and took advantage of the governance loophole of Dongting Lake to organize people. As for Qianzhou, it seems that it has been impossible to implement governance, forming an area with a tradition of anarchy.
In other words, although it sounds cruel, the fact is that although the taxes in the South are very heavy at the moment, it is impossible for them to reorganize again in a short period of time just to oppose the Northern Expedition and form an uprising like Fang La or Zhong Xiang... because there is no one to organize them.
However, Zhao Jiu, on the other hand, could not understand why he should be wary of those officials who had resigned.
After all, if productivity limits the degree of organization of ordinary people, what about the resigned officials? They also have to write a letter and it takes a month to be delivered, right? With such efficiency, can they set up a southern bureaucratic landlord group?
This so-called large vested interest group that was forcibly created according to class in ancient times... In the era when Zhao Jiu traveled through time, even low-end online novels were disdainful of writing about it. Instead, high-end strategy games had to create some void groups due to the way the games were played.
Zhao Jiu himself had also thought about this matter. The reason why he had to purge these people today was because he had figured it out in the harem before. The reason why these people were able to form public opinion and political power before was because they used the Zhao Song central bureaucracy system, which was a ready-made, largest, most convenient and most authoritative organizational system, to complete communication and organization.
And now, they've resigned.
So, I would like to ask, how else can they hinder the policy?
As if he had seen through Emperor Zhao's confusion, Lü Haowen, who had been silent all this time, stepped out slowly and bowed his head to him, "Emperor, since the struggle between the old and new parties, the elders have used the big cities as their bases to study academic subjects, write classics and history, and the young and strong have traveled back and forth to give lectures and travel for study. It is still very easy to connect them together."
Li Guang sighed and Zhao Jiu was startled.
The Prime Minister Zhang Jun also bowed his head and further revealed something: "Your Majesty, I'm sorry to say that you were a little impatient today. It's okay in the Central Plains and Guanxi, but we must prevent the resigned officials from going to the southeast and merging with the Taoism in the southeast, especially the Cheng brothers and the Luo school."
Zhao Jiu nodded blankly.
However, the official pondered for a long time under the complicated gazes of several top officials in the hall, but finally shook his head: "Mr. Lu's original school said that practice is the first principle. If today's behavior, national strategy, and even the principles of the original school are correct, we will eventually prove them one by one and make them convinced... I will not erect a monument to the Shaoxing party members, nor will I ban Luoxue, and I will not even interfere with their freedom to study and seek truth, but I will definitely let Yang Yizhong put some effort in the southeast and monitor him a little... In the final analysis, we must fight openly and don't use some violent means, otherwise it will go against the purpose of today."
Everyone below sighed at the same time... I don't know if it was out of pity or relief, and then there was a rare moment of silence.
"To put it in detail, we need to fill the vacant positions, wait for news from Qingzhou, and then discuss the restoration of the southern economy and the reduction of the burden on the people." Prime Minister Zhao Ding made a formal summary, but at this point, he became serious again. "Your Majesty... Excuse me, I have one last question."
"Speak, my husband."
"The emperor is kindhearted and wants to do everything for the people in the south, but if we are powerless, we will not be able to do both in a short period of time." Zhao Ding bowed his head. "By then, the economic recovery in the south and the reduction of the burden on the people will still conflict with the crossing of the river to the north, which means that the finances will still be stretched... What should we do?"
Several generals and officers frowned, thinking that there was something wrong with Mr. Zhao. What else could they do? The emperor was so heroic during the day, have you forgotten?
However, Zhao Jiu in the hall gave an unexpected answer without thinking: "I have thought a lot in the harem these days... My goal is not to negotiate peace, but it is not that we cannot slow down. If it really comes to the situation you said, then drag it out! For example, the fertile land in Jingdong is next to the capital. Not only must we take it, but we can also enrich ourselves by taking it. We must take it back quickly, but northern Shaanxi can slow down..."
At this point, the civil and military officials in the hall could clearly feel the tone of Zhao Guanjia sinking: "Then we will continue to fight the Jin people in northern Shaanxi, and let the various tribes in Guanxi take turns to fight Huo Nu. We will only fight in rotation without using large troops. We will see whether we or the Jin people will consume more. If they voluntarily give up, we will go to Shaanxi to continue the rotation. I don't believe they can keep giving up... Anyway, we will wait until we have enough strength to cross the river to the north to attack."
After saying that, Zhao Jiu looked directly at a person in the hall, and the others all looked at this person along with the emperor, and it was none other than Han Shizhong, the Prince of Yan'an.
Han Shizhong laughed awkwardly, and finally stepped out of the line with his hands on his waist, then he bowed his hands and said the first sentence of the night: "Since the Huai River, the children of northern Shaanxi have trusted the emperor like a minister. They all think that the one who can make us return home must be the emperor!"
"It's the same with the children of Hebei." Li Qiong also quickly bowed his head and stepped out of the line again.
"The people of Hedong are the same." Zhao Ding, who turned around to look at Han Shizhong, also turned around and saluted in the same way.
Zhao Jiu felt relieved for a moment... He could only say that it was worth the four years of hard work, plus that incident during the day.
