Chapter 1 The First Trouble

Zhao Jiu executed the white horse to establish the Filature of the Song, and by dealing with the Second Saints, this hemorrhoid-like issue, he thoroughly cleansed the central bureaucracy. But this did not mean that things could be declared a complete success, nor did it mean that this action had no negative consequences.

In fact, the political declaration and the great purge were only the beginning of the real test.

And that very night, in Zuo County, still within the territory of Hua Prefecture, he encountered the first trouble caused by this incident.

"Your Majesty."

For some reason, Wulinda Zanmo, the Jin envoy who had been remembered and brought over by Lu Gongxiang, spoke with a fishy stench in his mouth. "The Great Jin generals who have fought with the officials on the northern side all said that Your Majesty's behavior is not like that of the Zhao family's blood relatives. But this foreign minister only knows today that Your Majesty is indeed a direct descendant of the Zhao family... May I ask Your Majesty, what is the difference between your actions today, which are grand and in breach of contract, and the past actions of the Second Saints?"

"I've already said, there's really no breach of contract..." Zhao Jiu, still in his cloth military uniform, said solemnly from his seat in the main hall of Zuo County. "According to the agreement, once the Second Saints are returned, the delivery of the five counties of Jingdong must be the basic condition for the actual completion of the agreement. But I am waiting for you here, and you will not be able to produce the five counties of Jingdong."

"This foreign minister can probably guess what's going on." Wulinda Zanmo flicked his sleeves and sneered. "Originally, we were also defending against the Jinan direction. Now, I think Your Majesty deliberately exposed the flaw of Jinan and Liu Yu, and then ordered Zhang Jun to leave Yi Prefecture to attack Li Cheng in Qing Prefecture, the so-called 'making a feint to the east while attacking in the west'... But Your Majesty, this foreign minister only asks two things. First, has Qing Prefecture really been taken at this time? Does Your Majesty have definite military reports? Why abandon the agreement and declare war in person? Second, even if Zhang Jun has already taken Qing Prefecture at this time, and we cannot hand over the five counties, is it a righteous act for the officials to send court officials to negotiate peace with me on the one hand, and then send military officials to attack Qing Prefecture on the other?"

As soon as these words came out, several of the attending chancellors and important officials were a little embarrassed, but the military officials obviously did not care.

As for Zhao Jiu, he was also silent for a moment before nodding in response: "I not only sent Zhang Jun, but also used Yue Fei... At this moment, there must be losses in the three counties occupied by Li Cheng."

Wulinda Zanmo and the civil and military officials all changed color slightly.

The Zhao Emperor continued to speak earnestly: "As for things like righteousness and justice, Wulinda Qing, you should also be able to see that I have already tried my best."

"How can you convince the people of the world by trying your best?!" Wulinda Zanmo came back to his senses and continued to flick his sleeves in anger.

"Massacring cities and looting, digging up graves and exposing corpses, migrating people to the wilderness, enclosing land for slaves... Can this also convince the people of the world?" Zhao Jiu calmly responded before several military officers were about to step forward. "In the end, Wulinda Qing, there is such a bloody feud between the Song and Jin, where is it necessary to have some articles to convince the world? Even in the Jin Kingdom, isn't it because both Eliduo and Wushu, who are in power, have experienced Yaoshan and know that after that battle, the Jurchen military power stopped at the Yellow River, that they want to negotiate peace?"

Wulinda Zanmo was silent for a moment, skipped the first half of Zhao Song's Emperor's sentence, and said directly: "The Jin army's power stops at the Yellow River, can it be that the Song army's power can cross the Yellow River? The current situation is clearly that neither country has the confidence to fight across the river, and they could have taken the opportunity to let the two countries recuperate for several years, and perhaps they could have achieved long-term stability and security. But the officials want to laboriously fail the people of the world for the sake of past grievances... This foreign minister has been in Tokyo for several months and also knows some of the statements in the Dibao (official gazette), but I don't know when the taxes in the south of the Great Song Dynasty can be reduced?"

"This is not something that Wulinda Qing should worry about..." Zhao Jiu finally became impatient. "You dragged Nianhan to the front of the Shangshu Terrace and smashed him to death, but you don't know what Xixia, who has been pleasing Nianhan, will think? What will his old subordinates think? And Nianhan is overthrown, but Wu Qimai's lineage has no explanation, but is driven to the outside of the fortress, and may not be peaceful... Are we here to write ten victories and ten defeats?"

Wulinda Zanmo opened his mouth, and had no choice but to sigh: "In any case, after this incident between the two countries, unless there is a major military and political change, it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky to regain the trust of both sides, and this situation is entirely the doing of the Zhao Emperor!"

"Then so be it!" Zhao Jiu said straightforwardly. "I will sooner or later sweep away the court and raid the Yellow Dragon... Could it be that after personally experiencing the Jingkang Incident, Wulinda Qing still thinks that he can be an envoy seven times between the Song and Jin and become famous at home and abroad?"

At this point, although Wulinda Zanmo shook his head more and more, he said nothing more.

"Zhai Qing." Zhao Jiu also simply turned his head to look at Zhai Ruwen, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, who had been by Wulinda Zanmo's side. "Make good arrangements for Wulinda Qing to return north."

Zhai Ruwen understood and immediately responded, and then carefully invited Wulinda Zanmo out.

And everyone reacted differently to the departure of this person.

"I didn't expect this person to be interesting too." Seeing Wulinda Zanmo leave without saying a word, Qu Duan couldn't help but sigh. "He was humiliated for no reason during the day, but he didn't mention it at all. I don't know if he's just putting on a show or if he really has backbone..."

Zhao Ding, the chief minister of the Department of State Affairs, frowned slightly when he heard this: "What's the point of saying this now that things have come to this!"

Qu Duan smiled sheepishly and said nothing.

"Your Majesty..." Zhao Ding thought for a moment, and still cupped his hands in response. "There are so many things today, I shouldn't be asking at this time, but some things are fundamentally related to today's events, so I have to ask."

"I know what you want to ask." Zhao Jiu said solemnly. "Just say it."

"May I ask Your Majesty, when did Yue and Zhang set out? How many troops?" Seeing the other party's frankness, Zhao Ding also relaxed slightly. After all, the Emperor's remaining power from the day was still there. "Did they really leave Xu Prefecture, go through Yi Prefecture, enter Qing Prefecture, and go to fight Li Cheng?"

"I don't know the specific time." Zhao Jiu answered simply. "For the sake of secrecy... I only roughly told them that the Second Saints would return at the end of the month, and let the two of them decide on their own, without having to report. As for the troops, I can only say that in order not to alert the Jin people in the Jinan direction, the two families together can deploy a maximum of 50,000 troops. I don't know the specific number of troops. But the attack route is indeed to leave Yi Prefecture and attack Li Cheng in Qing Prefecture."

This was three questions with two unknowns.

Zhao Ding frowned, looked back at Zhang Jun, the Privy Councilor, and then continued to cup his hands and ask: "Then may I ask Your Majesty, how was the deployment of the Imperial Guard's Vanguard concealed from the Privy Council?"

"It was not concealed from the Privy Council." Zhao Jiu glanced at Zhang Jun, the Privy Councilor, who wanted to say something but hesitated, and answered simply. "I originally wanted Zhang Jun of the Imperial Guard's Right Army to launch a surprise attack independently, and then use the Imperial Guard's Cavalry Army and the Imperial Guard's Central Army to support him, but Yue Fei returned too quickly. He actually crossed the river in mid-May, so I temporarily changed my mind and included him. And all I did was to let the Privy Council be careful to guard against the situation in Jingdong, allocate more military supplies to the Xu Prefecture direction, and then arrange for the Imperial Guard's Vanguard to take the Xu Prefecture route..."

"Chancellor Zhao." Zhang Jun also argued helplessly. "Yue Fei's return north and taking the Xu Prefecture route cannot be said to be off course. You also nodded in the Secretariat Pavilion for adding military supplies in the Xu Prefecture direction to guard against Liu Yu... The key is that since Yue Pengju crossed the river and returned north, who cared which route he took? Even if someone cared about him at that time, they only cared about his memorial! I say, don't ask these questions now, quickly follow the Emperor's previous preparations, send the Imperial Guard's Central Army and the Imperial Guard's Cavalry Army to Jinan to make a diversion, and then the Imperial Guard's Navy must also go downstream to block the Yellow River."

"That's impossible." Li Qiong, the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard's Central Army, suddenly interjected solemnly between the two powerful chancellors, and then asked for forgiveness. "Your subordinate takes the liberty..."

"It's okay." Zhao Ding's demeanor as a chancellor was as calm as usual. "Tell us."

"Let the Chancellors know." Li Qiong said earnestly. "According to the military intelligence transmitted from the Taihang Mountains, in the Hebei direction, divided by the old course of the Yellow River, the Jin people have main forces in the east in Daming Prefecture and in the west in Longde Prefecture (Huguan). To prevent the Jin people from encircling Wei to save Zhao, the Imperial Guard's Navy must not go downstream. Moreover, the Qing Prefecture attack is a surprise attack, separated by Jinan, it can only make a diversion and cannot affect the real victory or defeat... Your Majesty." At this point, Li Qiong cupped his hands to Zhao Jiu again and said. "Your subordinate is willing to lead his troops and the Eight Character Army to Dongping Prefecture to feign an attack on Jingdong. This is enough to distract Jinan. Even the Imperial Guard's Cavalry Army must be kept behind to support the rear. On the contrary, the Xu Prefecture direction must not be short of logistics."

Zhao Jiu glanced at the other military generals in the hall, and seeing that no one refuted him, he nodded and agreed: "Then arrange it like this... You will set off tomorrow morning."

Li Qiong cupped his hands and retreated.

"That's good." Zhao Ding sighed, knowing that it was not good to pursue the matter, but shook his head in response. "In addition to quickly supporting the diversion, there is another matter about the Qing Prefecture military... Your Majesty, regardless of whether Yue Fei and Zhang Jun have succeeded at this time, and regardless of whether we know the battle situation, the Dibao (official gazette) must be published first, saying that Qing Prefecture has already changed hands and Li Cheng has been defeated and retreated! And the Jin envoy Wulinda Zanmo knew that the Jin Kingdom could not produce the five counties, so he simply became furious and left to the north!"

Zhao Jiu was slightly stunned... Can it be like this?

Frankly speaking, he had already prepared for the punishment of losing faith and reducing his prestige by 300 points.

"Why not say that in addition to being furious, he also praised the Emperor's clever methods, and specially left a letter in Zuo County, saying that he was sincerely convinced this time." Qu Duan finally couldn't help but interject again, attracting side glances from many military generals below Han Shizhong who wanted to interject. "Let the Dibao publish his letter... Anyway, he can't refute it."

Isn't that bad?

Zhao Jiu instinctively wanted to deny it.

"You write it!" Zhao Ding turned his head again and said coldly to Qu Duan. "Quickly write it before midnight tonight, otherwise the fast horse won't wait! And if there is even the slightest flaw in the article, and it becomes embarrassing, I will hold you accountable!"

Qu Duan actually nodded in agreement... and Zhao Jiu actually didn't have time to interject the whole time.

But this was only a small matter after all. Soon, Privy Councilor Zhang Jun also quickly played: "Your Majesty, there is another matter that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible..."

Zhao Jiu knew it in his heart, but couldn't help but frown slightly: "Actually, how can I not know that after today, there will only be more things to deal with, I'm afraid there will be more than one thing to deal with."

"But there are urgent matters." Zhang Jun said earnestly.

"That's right." Zhao Jiu sighed slightly, not as intense as he was during the day. "We have to quickly fill the vacant official positions, and then we can return to Tokyo to discuss the southern economy and the burden on the people..."

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment... Not only Zhang Jun, but also Zhao Ding, and Lu Haowen, who had been drooping his eyelids, Liu Ji and Chen Gui, who were silent, Li Guang, and even Qu Duan, who had just retreated, were all stunned.

"Did I forget something?" Zhao Jiu immediately smelled something, and then called out an unexpected name. "Qu Da! You are both civil and military, so you should also know what's going on, you tell me!"

"Your Majesty..." This time, under the cold eyes of all the civil and military officials in the hall, Qu Duan tried his best to raise his head. "It is right for Your Majesty to think about the burden on the south, but your subject has also dealt with people's livelihood in Guanxi, but knows that even if the common people are in difficulty, they dare not rebel and cannot speak out. At most, they will write a folk song! And all the civil unrest, one is that they really can't live, and they have nothing to eat; the other is that someone instigates and gathers them. And now the south has just been pacified, and they will definitely not rebel, and they will not resist the taxes added before. At most, it can be said that we should guard against the spread of something like the vegetarian demon sect. What we really need to worry about are the seventy or eighty officials who left their posts today..."

Zhao Jiu thought for a moment and immediately woke up, but then fell into confusion again.

The reason is very simple. That is, in this era, due to the basic means of transportation and communication, it is impossible for the common people in the south to cross the government and form a large-scale Southern Anti-Taxism Group. Someone must use an organizational structure that exceeds the basic framework of feudal society to organize these people before a rebellion risk can be formed.

For example, Fang La before, was a famous demon sect in Chinese history, that is, the predecessor of the Ming Cult, plus the devastation of the Flower Stone Program to the southeast; and Zhong Xiang Yang Mo, who was pacified at the beginning of the year, also used local religions and fishery insurance businesses, and took advantage of the ruling loopholes in Dongting Lake, to organize the people; as for Qian Prefecture, it seems to have always been unable to implement rule, forming a region with an anarchist tradition.

So, in other words, although it sounds cruel, the fact is that although the taxes in the south are very heavy now, it is impossible to reorganize again in a short period of time because they want to oppose the Northern Expedition and form an uprising like Fang La or Zhong Xiang... Because no one organized them.

But Zhao Jiu, on the other hand, couldn't understand why he should guard against those officials who had left their posts.

After all, if productivity limits the degree of organization of the common people, what about the officials who have left their posts? They also have to write a letter and it will take a month to send it, right? With this kind of efficiency, can they form a Southern Bureaucratic Landlord Group?

This kind of so-called large vested interest group that is forcibly created in ancient times according to class... In the era when Zhao Jiu traveled through, even the lowest-end online novel would not bother to write it, but high-end strategy games had to create some virtual groups due to the game's method.

And Zhao Jiu himself had also thought about this matter. The reason why he had to cleanse these people during the day was because he had figured it out in the harem before. The reason why these people could form public opinion and political forces before was because they used the ready-made, largest, most convenient, and most authoritative organizational system of the Zhao Song central bureaucratic system to complete communication and organization.

And now, they have left their posts.

So, may I ask how they can hinder policies?

It seemed that he had seen through the Zhao Emperor's doubts, and Lu Haowen, who had been silent, slowly stepped forward and bowed in response: "Your Majesty, since the strife between the old and new parties, the veterans have used big cities as their base, studying academics and writing scriptures and history. The young and strong go back and forth to ask for information, go to lectures, and travel, and it is still easy to collude."

Li Guang sighed next to him, and Zhao Jiu was shocked.

Privy Councilor Zhang Jun also bowed in response, which was considered to further reveal some things: "Your Majesty, your subject takes the liberty, today Your Majesty was indeed a little impatient and inappropriate. Central Plains and Guanzhong are fine, but we must guard against these officials who have left their posts after going to various places in the southeast, and merging with the Taoism in the southeast, especially the Luoyang School of the Cheng brothers."

Zhao Jiu nodded blankly.

However, this Emperor thought for a long time in the complex eyes of several top officials in the hall, but finally shook his head: "Chancellor Lu's original learning has words, practice is the first truth. If the actions, national strategy, and even the truth of the original learning are correct, we will eventually prove them to them one by one and make them convinced... I will not erect any Shaoxing Party Monument, nor will I ban the Luoyang School, and I will not even interfere with their freedom to study and seek reason, but I will definitely let Yang Yizhong put some effort in the southeast to monitor them slightly... In the end, we must compete in an open and honest manner, and not use some drastic measures, otherwise it will be contrary to the theme of today's daytime."

Everyone below sighed together... I don't know if it was a pity or relief, followed by a rare silence.

"So, after saying so much, we just need to fill the vacant official positions, wait for the news from Qing Prefecture, and then we can discuss the economic recovery of the south and reduce the burden on the people." Chief Minister Zhao Ding officially made a summary, but when he said this, he became serious again. "Your Majesty... Your subject takes the liberty, there is one last question."

"Chancellor, please speak."

"Your Majesty has a benevolent heart, thinking of the people in the south and wanting to be perfect, but if we are really unable to do so and cannot achieve both in a short period of time." Zhao Ding bowed in response. "At that time, the economic recovery of the south and reducing the burden on the people will still conflict with the Northern Expedition, that is, the finances will still not be able to stretch... What should we do then?"

Several commander-generals frowned, only feeling that this Chancellor Zhao was a little out of line. What else can we do? Have you forgotten how bold the Emperor was during the day?

However, Zhao Jiu in the hall gave an unexpected answer without thinking: "I have thought a lot in the harem these days... My purpose is not to negotiate peace, but it is not that we cannot slow down slightly. If we really reach the situation you said, then we will drag it on! For example, the fertile land of Jingdong is next to the capital city, so we must not only take it back, but we can also slightly enrich ourselves, so we must take it back quickly, but northern Shaanxi can be slowed down..."

At this point, the civil and military officials in the hall could clearly feel the Emperor Zhao's tone sinking: "At that time, we will drag it on with the Jin people in northern Shaanxi, and let the various departments in Guanzhong take turns to go up and face Huo Nu, only do rotation battles, without using large troops, and see who spends more, us or the Jin people. And if he takes the initiative to abandon it, we will go to the Shanzhou side to maintain rotation battles. I don't believe they can keep abandoning it... Anyway, we will keep waiting until we have the spare power to cross the river for the Northern Expedition."

After saying that, Zhao Jiu directly looked at one person in the hall, and everyone else also looked at this person with the Emperor, who was none other than Han Shizhong, the Prince of Yan'an.

Han Shizhong smiled sheepishly, finally supported his waist and stepped forward, and then raised his hand and said the first sentence tonight: "Since the Huai River, the children of northern Shaanxi have trusted the Emperor like your subject. They all thought that the only one who can make us return to our hometown is the Emperor!"

"The children of Hebei are the same." Li Qiong also quickly bowed again.

"The gentry and people of Hedong are also like this." Zhao Ding, who turned to look at Han Shizhong, also turned back and gave the same salute.

Zhao Jiu was relieved for a moment... It can only be said that four years of hard work, plus the one during the day, were not in vain.

ps: Thanks to An Zong's fifth cute and Yun Ge's fans' double cute

Then, as usual, I offer a sacrifice to the new book "I'm Really Not Her Apprentice". The protagonist, Yi Shanjin, becomes a disciple of the first fairy Bai Zirou. The author is a serious person and doesn't step on the brakes.