Chapter 117 No War

There were no war-related topics.

Previous rumors about the establishment of an heir were also a bit too sensitive. The Taixue Wen Zheng (Imperial Academy Politicking) group, mainly composed of Imperial Academy students and respected elders of Dongjing (Kaifeng), still valued feudal ethics and traditions. They inevitably considered the emperor's dignity, making them hesitant in such situations.

Therefore, the Taixue Wen Zheng itself, as the last major event of the seventh year of Jianyan (1133), proceeded without much drama... The only slight disturbance occurred during the midday break when several commoners from out of town knelt outside the Imperial Academy to lodge complaints directly to the emperor. Choosing this time to complain seemed premeditated, but the court had well-established procedures for handling such matters, and someone was assigned to deal with it.

However, just because others weren't causing trouble for the emperor and key central officials didn't mean the emperor and key central officials wouldn't cause trouble for others.

That afternoon, as the fourth Taixue Wen Zheng was about to conclude victoriously, Lü Haowen, the Chancellor Lü, slowly rose near the end. He came to the center of the venue and, in two sentences, announced the secret establishment of an heir apparent on behalf of Emperor Zhao.

It was said that, 'After joint deliberation by the Emperor and key central officials, a crown prince will be established without public announcement; two imperial edicts will be prepared, one carried by the Emperor, and the other hung from the rafters of the Wende Hall. In case of an emergency, key court officials will jointly open it and enthrone a new ruler'... That was all.

After saying this, Emperor Zhao and his entourage left, leaving countless low- and mid-level officials, Imperial Academy students, and respected Confucian elders of Dongjing bewildered in the wind.

Many people didn't even understand what had happened!

However, the Emperor had already left the Imperial Academy. The senior officials dispersed in front of the academy gates, each returning home to their wives.

With that, the seventh year of Jianyan was truly uneventful. If anything was to happen, it would have to wait until the eighth year.

Back to the present, after leaving the Imperial Academy and respectfully seeing off the Emperor Zhao's entourage, Qu Duan, the Commander of the Imperial Army Cavalry, and the seven or eight high-ranking cavalry generals behind him, gathered on the excessively wide Imperial Street, somewhat dazed... Like everyone else, they were puzzled by this secret heir establishment system.

But fortunately, as military officers, they naturally avoided such affairs and didn't bother like other officials, either swarming towards the residences of superiors and important officials or gathering together for heated discussions.

"Why are you still following me?"

After looking north with his hands behind his back for a while, Qu Duan suddenly turned around and frowned at his subordinates.

*You didn't say we could leave?*

The others were speechless, but Zhang Zhongfu and Zhang Zhongyan, the brothers who had followed him for many years, and even Liu Qi and Li Shifu, who were now accustomed to his blunt manner, didn't dare to retort.

"I was just about to ask, Commander, it's already the New Year holiday. In the coming days, even soldiers with families near Dongjing will be going home for the New Year... Since there's nothing to do, do you want to go out and have some fun together?" Liu Qi, being from a military family, was the most tactful.

"Go where for fun?" Qu Duan was tempted, but when he saw another group of military officers coming out, he immediately changed his tone and spoke loudly with his hands behind his back on the Imperial Street in front of the Imperial Academy. "Even if we go out, why do so many people have to gather together? It's the New Year. Those who know us will understand it's a camaraderie, but those who don't will think I, Qu Duan, am narrow-minded, wanting you to serve me even on holiday, otherwise, I'd be uncomfortable! What's more, some civil officials might see us from afar and submit a memorial, accusing me of forming cliques and luring you into factional strife! Don't you know that the Song Dynasty was ruined by factional strife? Without the New and Old Factional Strife, where would the Jingkang Catastrophe come from?!"

After speaking, Qu Duan left with an air of righteousness.

However, Liu Qi, Li Shifu, the Zhang brothers, and several other cavalry commanders merely exchanged glances and ignored their superior, whom they were already used to. They gathered together and headed towards Maxing Street.

And as Qu Duan left alone, Wang Yan, another of the ten jiedushi (military governors) in the capital who had just left the Imperial Academy, could only lead a group of high-ranking military officers from the original Eight Character Army with embarrassed expressions, their faces turning pale at the gate... It took him a long while to recover, but he simply waved his sleeve and went home alone.

Even many civil officials, after hearing Qu Duan's outburst, immediately extinguished their desire to form groups for entertainment and banquets, and dispersed.

However, Qu Duan, with his head held high and chest puffed out, rode his iron elephant majestically all the way. As he continued north towards Donghua Gate, walking between the ruins of Genyue and Yanfu Palace, and seeing that he was almost at his residence in Jingyuan, he felt a bit bored as he saw fewer and fewer people around... It was a rare holiday, and it was still early. Why go home pretending to be dead instead of going to Maxing Street to find someone to drink and eat fish soup?

But since he had already reached this place, could he really turn back?

Just as he was thinking this, Qu Duan suddenly looked up and saw a person riding a mule in front of him, dressed in ordinary clothes. He first came towards him, and then actually left the main road and drilled into the ruins of Genyue, naturally causing Qu Duan to be angry.

"Xiahou! Where are you going dressed like this?"

It turned out that the one who wanted to avoid Qu Duan was none other than Xiahou Yuan, Qu Duan's trusted adjutant, who was out in disguise.

It should be noted here that in this era, the court could not completely eliminate the feudal elements in the army, especially at the level of Marshal to Commander. After Emperor Zhao shifted his focus to the army's grassroots, it was almost the most obvious layer of feudal elements in the army.

The Marshals oversaw an army, wielded military power as generals, and shared financial and personnel power with the court. Both sides tried to be tacit and not cause trouble for the court. Commanders were second only to them, having to deal with the Marshals and the court, still possessing great power.

Even in special cases like Li Yanxian, he didn't inspect his troops for years. The court only provided him with armaments, provisions, and other military supplies according to the regulations for an Imperial Army of 20,000 men, and now 30,000 men.

How it was divided and distributed was entirely up to Li Yanxian.

In reality, everyone knew that Li Yanxian's army was divided into three parts. He himself had a core force of seven or eight thousand men under the Imperial Army regulations, stationed on both sides of the Yellow River in Shanzhou, which was given priority. The remaining money, grain, and military resources were divided into two, one half going to the Zhai family from Luoyang, and the other half to righteous armies from Zhongtiao Mountain, even the Taihang Mountain, and perhaps even further north... Li Yanxian himself probably didn't know the exact number, but it was definitely much more than twenty or thirty thousand.

Even when Dong Xian of the Zhai family's forces won a victory, he insisted on being promoted to commander during a large-scale battle, not simply because he wanted to take the opportunity to break away from the Zhai family's system and become a regular force.

Emperor Zhao and the court were pretending to be confused, happy to see it happen and going along with it.

Returning to the present, the trusted adjutant was naturally an excellent feudal tradition from ancient times. Emperor Zhao had trusted commanders in front of him, so the marshals full of feudal remnants also had trusted adjutants, mostly from the marshals' hometowns, personal troops, or descendants, or all three.

Han Shizhong initially had Jie Yuan, and after Jie Yuan made a name for himself, he had Cheng Min; Yue Fei initially had Wang Gui, Tang Huai, and Zhang Xian, these three brothers. After they gradually grew in power, he also had a trusted adjutant like Bi Jin responsible for chores and leading the personal guards in front of him; even Wang Yan, who was ridiculed by Qu Duan, whose Eight Character Army was different from other places, had a similar role, a small staff officer Fan, who had now become a commander, but this had created a rift between him and Wang Yan.

As for Qu Duan himself, he was different from others... He rose up amidst chaos, and then, just two years after his rise, he was brought back by Hu Yin and Wan Qixie sent by Emperor Zhao, in a state where he could be killed or spared. Fortunately, he was whipped in public in front of Wende Hall and left idle for a year before finally being allowed to lead troops again. Then, after re-establishing the Imperial Army Cavalry and becoming its commander, he had never been able to gather enough troops until after pacifying Western Xia, when he gradually gained strength.

And as the saying goes, one prospers, all prosper; one suffers, all suffer. This rise and fall made his trusted adjutant Xiahou Yuan still a trusted adjutant after many years.

Back then, when Wu Jie captured Qu Duan, Xiahou Yuan was the one who followed him to the end. Now, although he seemed to have finally made it through, he still needed a major battle to gain military merit before he could leave Qu Duan and become a regular official.

"Why did the Commander come back so early?"

Xiahou Yuan, after being called by name by Qu Duan, had no choice but to turn back. He pretended to be nonchalant, calmly dismounted the mule, and stood in front of the iron elephant with his hands clasped in front of him, looking like an honest man. "Is everything alright at the Imperial Academy?"

Qu Duan's intention to mock him vanished upon seeing this man's appearance... It wasn't that he didn't want to mock him, but he knew that no matter what he said, the other party would pretend to be stupid. No one could do anything about it, and he was still his most trusted subordinate, someone he couldn't easily beat or scold... So he simply frowned on the iron elephant and said, "The Imperial Academy is over. I ask you, before you left this morning, did you carefully check the duty roster at Yuetai and then secretly inquire about the New Year's rewards?"

"I did it carefully, but I didn't succeed." Xiahou Yuan became serious when his Commander asked about serious matters. "The people from the Imperial City Division, the Military Statistics Division, and the Zhifang Division went together today... I didn't dare to say anything, so I accompanied them for half the day and just came back."

"Oh." Qu Duan understood in his heart, but he continued to ask seriously, "Did you find anything?"

"There's nothing wrong with Deputy Commander Li (Li Shifu)'s light-armored Fan (foreign) troops. They're all grateful for the Emperor's generosity. Zhang Da and Zhang Er (Zhang Zhongfu and Zhang Zhongyan) have always been personally watched over by the Commander, so there's nothing there either. On the contrary, in the two armored cavalry teams led by Deputy Commander Liu (Liu Qi), there seems to be something wrong with the accounts and personnel. The Military Statistics Division took the opportunity to expose them," Xiahou Yuan said truthfully.

Qu Duan frowned again: "Those newly recruited Fan cavalry are all bumpkins. It's their first year in Dongjing, so of course they think everything is good. Liu Qi is from a military family, and all his subordinates are involved in such dirty things. He knows it in his heart, but he doesn't have the power to change it. It's like a dog can't stop eating shit... It's all within expectations."

Xiahou Yuan only lowered his head in front of the mule, pretending not to hear.

"Forget it!"

Qu Duan thought for a moment and shook his head. "The Emperor wants to catch us off guard by taking advantage of the New Year holiday, meaning he doesn't want us to get involved. Just pretend we don't know... There will be an explanation after the New Year."

"The Commander is right, that's what I thought too," Xiahou Yuan immediately replied.

Qu Duan also nodded on the horse, but soon raised his eyebrows again: "So you're planning to go and have fun yourself? Are you going to Maxing Street to drink?"

Xiahou Yuan had no choice but to be honest: "I made an appointment with some colleagues when I was in the camp... Besides, it's already evening. There's no Cuju (soccer) game to watch in the north of the city? I can only go to see the exhibition match tomorrow afternoon."

Qu Duan remained cold and silent throughout.

And Xiahou Yuan knew what the other party meant, but he didn't dare to mention it... If he really opened his mouth and let Qu Duan go, would they, a group of adjutants, be going to have fun or suffer? Would Xiahou Yuan still want to work in the army?... So after glossing over a few words, he could only pretend to be stupid and stand there, refusing to say anything.

The two were at a stalemate for a while. Qu Duan rarely had a stomachache caused by others, but he was helpless. He could only flick his sleeve, urged the iron elephant under his crotch, and went home.

However, just as Xiahou Yuan was relieved and climbed onto the mule, he heard a distant reprimand from behind: "You can only listen to music when you call a prostitute! Otherwise, if the Emperor finds out from the Imperial City Division, you might not be able to become a Commander in your lifetime!"

Xiahou Yuan nodded haphazardly and hurried away.

And not to mention how Xiahou Yuan went to Maxing Street for retaliatory spending, on the other side, when Qu Duan returned to his residence in Jingyuan, his old wife, young children, and servants greeted him with joyous faces.

But Qu Duan himself, having experienced the previous two incidents, only felt that the home was a bit deserted.

He looked around inside the door for half a day, causing his wife to be confused, before finally realizing that the residence bestowed by the Emperor in Jingyuan was exceptionally large, but his family was small... There was no way around it. Just like Yue Fei beheaded his uncle to uphold military discipline, Qu Duan had also beheaded his uncle for the same reason... Therefore, unlike other senior officials who had countless nephews and relatives in their homes, he had fewer people, and mostly old soldiers.

And these old soldiers, those with families had gone to take care of their families, and those without families had long gone to have fun, so where would they be hanging out at the residence?

Of course, it seemed deserted.

In this way, Qu Duan became increasingly annoyed. He hastily changed his clothes and went to the study, intending to summarize the key points of today's Wen Zheng... But unexpectedly, when he came to the study, he suddenly saw an invitation card. Then, as if possessed, he directly told his family and left on foot.

After leaving the door, Qu Duan only walked around in Jingyuan a little before arriving at a residence with the same regulations as his own, and then confidently entered the hall.

This was actually the home of the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, Zhao Shi! It turned out that just a few days ago, Zhao Shifan, Zhao Shi's eldest son, had suddenly been transferred to the Imperial Army and entered the cavalry, becoming Qu Duan's direct subordinate, which led to this ceremonial invitation.

Even the date of this invitation was chosen to coincide with the day after the Taixue Wen Zheng, when there might be large-scale gatherings, a day when Qu Duan was unlikely to see the invitation.

However, the Zhao family themselves didn't expect that their careful calculations would coincide with Qu Duan's overacting. One of the ten jiedushi, the commander of an Imperial Army, had no place to gather and drink on the first night of his holiday, and actually ended up coming to their house.

Now that he had come, there was no way to kick him out, was there?

Besides, they couldn't beat him, could they?

Therefore, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, who had just returned, quickly prepared a banquet, and hurriedly sent someone to invite his in-law, Wang Shuzhan, along with his son Wang Ruohai, preparing to rely on this father and son and the face of his son-in-law's brother-in-law, Hu Hongxiu, to mediate and smooth things over.

"How is it?"

After three rounds of wine and some appetizers, and drinking two mouthfuls of hot mutton soup, it was time to talk. Qu Duan took the lead. "Zhao Bufan, now do you know what it means for fortune to change?"

Zhao Bufan raised his head blankly, only looking at his father-in-law and father, unsure how to reply.

"Don't think too much. I'm not talking about that little grudge we had after drinking, but about the inside story of your entire family..." Qu Duan raised his hand and pointed around the table. "Before, among your in-law families, the most prominent was your father, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, while the Wang family relied on your Zhao family through marriage, and then Hu Hongxiu relied on the Wang family through marriage. But what happened? What happened was that with the heroic events of the era, everything easily changed. Now, Hu Hongxiu is known as one of the three Hus of the current dynasty, and at a young age, he holds the position of an Area Pacifier, with unlimited potential in the future. Your two families have to rely on him together through marriage!"

Not to mention Zhao Bufan being stunned, even Zhao Shi, Wang Shuzhan, Wang Ruohai, and Zhao Bufan's several younger brothers at another table in the outer hall were also stunned.

In the end, it was still Zhao Shi who could maintain his composure. He stroked his beard slightly and then sighed: "This old man's life is like this. It's indeed my son's good fortune to have such in-laws."

Qu Duan put down his wine glass, which he was using to pour and drink himself, and shook his head, sneering: "Grand Minister, don't beat around the bush here. You can rest assured that although I, Qu Duan, sometimes act and speak absurdly, and have made mistakes, I am respectful to superiors and not slow to inferiors, and I bully outsiders but not insiders... I don't know who stuffed your son into my cavalry, but since he's been stuffed in, it's turned out to be the right thing by mistake. Expecting me to treat him well because of Hu Hongxiu's face is the opposite of what you should do!"

The people at the table perked up, and Wang Shuzhan gave his eldest son-in-law a look. The latter understood and immediately got up, respectfully offering wine to his superior, Commander Qu.

Qu Duan also grandiosely accepted the other party's glass of wine, and then pointed at the other party and laughed again: "Since I've accepted your wine, you're not an outsider. Tell me the truth, were you a little uneasy at first because you entered the cavalry, but when you thought about your brother-in-law's achievements, you couldn't bear to part with it, like a hundred claws scratching your heart? Is that why you're so hesitant?"

Zhao Bufan was a little embarrassed but still nodded slightly: "I do have this thought... Commander doesn't know, the descendants of the Imperial Clan are in an awkward position, and not everyone can be like that Zhuangyuan (Number One Scholar) who can study and make progress to this extent. To have this opportunity, no matter what, I can't bear to let go... Moreover, as the Commander said, my brother-in-law's achievements are right in front of me. I've also been riding horses and carrying knives since I was a child. How can I not be envious?"

"Actually, the Emperor isn't that harsh on you members of the Imperial Clan," Qu Duan said casually. "Whether it's entering school or joining the army, the Emperor is happy to see it happen, he just doesn't want you to occupy official titles and salaries without serving the country..."

"Who doesn't want to serve the country?" Hearing this, Wang Shuzhan, the former Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices who still didn't have an official position, finally broke down. He put down his wine glass and sighed repeatedly. "Commander, we have a heart full of enthusiasm to serve the country, but there's no way to report it!"

"You call that serving the country?" Qu Duan drank two mouthfuls of mutton soup, sneering more and more. "The Emperor likes the original learning, why does he like it? Isn't it because he values the terms of pragmatism and utilitarianism? In the end, you were good, doing alchemy. Is that stuff utilitarian? Is it considered pragmatic? You deserve it!"

Wang Shuzhan immediately turned pale... It turned out that as early as the second half of this year, the Emperor had published a small article in Lü Benzhong's small newspaper, precisely using that alchemy as an example, explaining the principle of melting gold with mercury and then analyzing it, and then taking the opportunity to propose the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter changing with temperature, and the conjecture of various substances being soluble or insoluble... Finally, he encouraged everyone to collect experimental information in this area in the small newspaper... After reading that small newspaper, Wang Shuzhan himself experimented with it, and seeing that the gold really dissolved into the liquid mercury, he was as depressed as if he had been struck by lightning from a clear sky.

Even now, whenever he thought that Emperor Zhao had long seen through the alchemy trick but still endured without exposing it, Wang Shuzhan couldn't help but want to slap himself twice... Who didn't know that with this broken thing, it would be difficult for him to turn over in his life.

"That matter was just Zhidao (Wang Shuzhan's courtesy name) being careless and being deceived by a Jianghu con man." Seeing his in-law being revealed a big scar, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, Yu Mingxian, couldn't bear it, so he simply stepped in to intervene.

"If it's said to be carelessness, what about the Grand Minister repeatedly persuading the Emperor to worship the Eight Mausoleums?" Qu Duan turned to look at the Grand Minister again, still sneering. "The Emperor hates the Second Emperors with all his heart because of the Jingkang Catastrophe. All his life, he has sought nothing more than a successful Northern Expedition and uniting the Nine Provinces, to make a clear distinction from the Former Song Dynasty. When did the Grand Minister realize this?"

"No matter when I realized it, even if it conflicted with the Emperor's intentions, I was clear in my conscience at that time, and I am open and honest today, so why mention the old things again?" Zhao Shi said calmly, stroking his beard.

Qu Duan looked at this Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan and couldn't help but admire him a little, so he bypassed this person and re-instructed Zhao Bufan: "If you learn even one or two points of your father's demeanor, it will be beneficial to you in the army... And as your father said, the past is all over. Your family's situation is still very good, and no matter what happened before, the first great plan in the future is the Northern Expedition. With your background, no one will dare to tamper with your merits. As long as you do your best, how can you not strive for a future?"

"Commander is right," Zhao Bufan quickly got up, preparing to pour wine again.

"It doesn't matter even if you die," Qu Duan took the wine, glanced at the scene in the outer hall, and smiled even more. "Anyway, your father has a bunch of sons. He's just using you as a statement to correct the evil..."

Zhao Bufan, who had just drunk a glass of wine, immediately flushed red, and even the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, Zhao Shi, was embarrassed for a moment.

Qu Duan drank the wine himself, then looked again at Wang Shuzhan and Wang Ruohai, father and son, across from him, and then pondered for a moment.

Wang Shuzhan was stunned for a moment, his heart moved slightly, and he actually took the initiative to get up, and then, regardless of his status, personally walked around to the opposite side to pour wine for the other party, and then said, "Does Commander Qu have any instructions for me?"

"I remembered something."

Qu Duan calmly took the other party's wine, drank it all in one gulp, now obviously a bit drunk, and then raised his eyebrows slightly, but directly grabbed the other party's sleeve, and asked jokingly. "Does Minister Wang still want to enter the Secret Pavilion in this life? Or can your son enter the Secret Pavilion in this life?"

Wang Shuzhan was excited in his heart, and immediately said earnestly: "If it can be like this, I will definitely not fail Commander Qu's kindness in this life."

Hearing these words, his son Wang Ruohai had also come over early, listening attentively.

"There's no need to remember me, this matter is beneficial to both parties," Qu Duan shook his head and smiled, and the Zhao family, father and son, quickly picked up food, pretending not to see it. "The current general situation is the Northern Expedition, and the merits of the Northern Expedition are either to be sought in military strategy, like your two sons-in-law, or to be sought in finance. These are all things that everyone knows... In fact, Minister Wan Qixie once came up with an idea, but the Emperor preempted it and missed it. Now there's still a chance, are you father and son unwilling?"

"If there is an opportunity, we are naturally willing to do our best," Wang Shuzhan said, puzzled for a moment. "But the court's opening of sources to obtain wealth has already exhausted all means, where is there room for us to serve?"

"It's not about letting you serve, nor is it about means, but about people's hearts," Qu Duan said with a smile that was not a smile. "Minister Wang, think about it... Your two sons-in-law, several sons, are all talented. You usually can't see who is stronger than whom. Why is it that Hu Jinglue can be the first to achieve great merit?"

Just as Wang Shuzhan was about to speak, Qu Duan had already answered himself in the seat: "It's because he threw away his pen and joined the army in the Jingkang Disaster, fought with the Jin people with weapons, and saw death and life all over the place on the front line of the city. In his heart, he knew that this was a chaotic world, so he plunged into military affairs... Then, although he stumbled and bumbled, and was honest to a fault, he couldn't stand being the first batch of literate people who knew soldiers and knew the army. This is the so-called timely action. Then, last year, the things accumulated in his heart over seven or eight years, and the temperament he had tempered, finally paid off... This is called following the heavenly time and the great luck, and accumulating strength, so sooner or later there will be this one."

Wang Shuzhan nodded sincerely, and even the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan, father and son, who were pretending to eat, were a little emotional.

"And, don't underestimate this one day early or one day late, one year early or one year late, one day early is the distinction between heaven and earth, one year early is the difference between life and death," Qu Duan obviously brought some drunkenness. "Han Shizhong was one year earlier than me, and he is the best in the world. Yue Pengju (Yue Fei) joined the army when the Jurchens first started going south, even if he was just a daredevil under Liu Ziyu's father, that was without a doubt experiencing the entire Song-Jin War. Without this qualification, how could he become second in the world? Even I, Qu Duan, if it weren't for being confused and wasting a year in the middle, I wouldn't dare to say that I wouldn't let these two climb on top of me, but how could I let Li Yanxian be ahead of me?"

This was indeed the greatest truth!

But the Zhao Bufan father and son looked at each other, but neither of them said anything.

On the other side, although the Wang Shuzhan father and son were already a little anxious inside, they could only nod repeatedly: "As the Commander said, the Commander should also have a four-character banner!"

Hearing these words, Qu Duan simply abandoned the other party's sleeves and directly stomped his feet... Although he usually didn't bother to pretend, this drunken state was really rare:

"A man is born in the world, he talks about ten thousand generations, not one lifetime! After the world was in chaos, I was determined to have great achievements and achieve a great name for all time, but I thought too highly of myself, and felt that everything should be done by me, and only regarded others as obstacles, and didn't even take the Emperor and the court into my eyes... Outsiders say that I'm arrogant, I admit it. If they say that I have disloyal intentions, I dare not deny it."

"Those are all things of the past," even the Grand Minister quickly came to persuade him.

Qu Duan simply ignored the other party, and at this point, he just picked up the jug of Blue Bridge Wind and Moon wine next to him, raised his head and gulped several mouthfuls, and then threw it on the ground, continuing to sigh with a mouth full of wine:

"But who would have thought that a person as arrogant as me could actually meet the current Emperor? The Emperor's strength is not in how talented he is, but in how he can always be accommodating to others and use the heroes of the world for his own use... I have never been convinced that this Emperor can use Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, and even Li Yanxian. Everyone knows that these people are the heroes of the world... But I never thought that the Emperor could still use Zhang Jun, that old money-grubber, could use Zhang Rong, that kind of water bandit, could use Wang De, that kind of rude warrior, and could still endure you useless waste, without finding fault and killing you all in one fell swoop to confiscate your family property. In the end, he could actually disregard the past and use a person as arrogant as me! Then I can only be convinced!"

The two pairs of father and son around him were a little wanting to curse when they heard the useless waste, but immediately heard the other party's last sentence, but they didn't know what to say.

"Minister Wang," Qu Duan finished speaking in one breath, feeling a lot more comfortable in his heart, then grabbed Wang Shuzhan's sleeve again and said: "I just said that, knowing or not knowing, experiencing or not experiencing, is the difference between heaven and earth... Then have you thought about it, when Empress Dowager Yuanyou is coming, eight or nine out of ten of those people in Yangzhou will not be able to sit still there... These people, who have been hiding behind for many years enjoying wealth and prosperity, and have never seen half a point of danger, aren't they a group of fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered? Where are they like this Dongjing, where even an honest person like the Grand Minister of the Imperial Clan has been trained to be slippery and hard for the Emperor to catch?"

"Commander Qu means to say..."

"What I mean to say is... The Emperor has never been a person who fails others. As long as you don't involve the Empress Dowager, no matter how you arrange it, as long as you send the handles of that group of people to the Emperor, let the Emperor make another fortune, are you still worried that you father and son will not have a future? Even if the Emperor still remembers that broken thing about the alchemist, he will reward your son! He will never sell you out!" Saying this, Qu Duan couldn't help but flick the other party's already bulging abdomen. "If you can earn money for the Emperor, it will be equivalent to introducing a real alchemist to the Emperor... Is the thing from that day still a thing?"

Wang Shuzhan and Wang Ruohai, father and son, were both thoughtful.

The Zhao Shi father and son next to him wanted to speak, but in the end, they were speechless.

After a drunken night, everyone went home.

Several days later, the New Year arrived, and the eighth year of Jianyan arrived as scheduled. Before the Lantern Festival, Empress Dowager Yuanyou, who had made a great contribution to Emperor Zhao's enthronement, finally arrived in Dongjing, accompanied by countless wealthy and powerful people who had fled south to Yangzhou during the Jingkang Disaster.

The last batch of people from the former era of abundance and prosperity, also the most conservative and cowardly batch, finally returned to the once prosperous Dongjing after seven or eight years.

And you don't even say, it may be because it is full of feudalism and imperial power... The air in Dongjing actually seemed so sweet and fresh.

ps: Thank you to Uncle Xiong for the reward, thank you to classmate Livestock Shed it6 for the up-meng (cute). The book has been written for a year and there are already 160 alliance leaders.

Continue to wish everyone a happy New Year!