Became a feudal lord in the late Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 245 The big one is coming

What the Goryeo people wanted was whether to establish a new emperor or to maintain the old Zuo. Liu Ling didn't care in his heart. Women had the right to use the gifts sent by Goryeo. Goryeo asked the Han Dynasty to put pressure on the Jin Kingdom and force them to withdraw their troops, so Liu Ling followed suit. He agreed.

The Kingdom of Jin will definitely withdraw its troops. Compared to Goryeo, which was about to be beaten to death, the Han army desperately built a fortified city around Dading Mansion. Even the newly acquired Songting Pass was also laid out by the Han army, layer by layer. The additional construction created a "bronze wall and iron wall" in front of the Jin people.

Therefore, the tens of thousands of Jin troops led by Wanyan Gao would definitely withdraw to support them no matter what. Liu Ling could just pay lip service and be a favor.

Things on the Goryeo side are easy to solve. In contrast, the Song Dynasty talents in the south are the highlight.

Xu Kangzong, the Song envoy, was an old acquaintance. He came this time to try his best to persuade the King of Han not to interfere in Hebei's affairs. However, the Hebei affairs itself originated from Liu Ling's instigation from behind. How could he not intervene.

After Liu Ling blackmailed Xu Kangzong and asked him to blackmail the Song Dynasty court for another yearly coin, he sent people to Hebei to continue to stir up trouble.

Every day he can trouble the people of Song Dynasty with just his words, and he can also get more money and food, so why not?

At night, a handful of pale moonlight was scattered in the courtyard. Zhao Mingcheng sat alone under the eaves of the corridor and looked at the moonlight. Although there was a stove for heating next to him, it was still cold and cold.

I don't know how long it took, but someone came up from behind and gently put a piece of clothing on him.

Zhao Mingcheng didn't look back, but still raised his hand to hold his wife's hand, rubbed the back of her hand, and suddenly said: "I remember that you like to read some poems on the wall. Do you want me to send someone to send you to live in the north for a while? , you will not be short of food, clothing, and money, I have arranged everything for you there.”

Li Qingzhao was stunned for a moment, and he quickly reacted in his mind. Just as he was about to say something, there was a gentle knock on the courtyard door, and then the old housekeeper's voice came in.

Even the official family of the Song Dynasty was hijacked by their ministers in the court, there were repeated local rebellions, the northern Xinjiang was in turmoil, and Dali and Vietnam in the south were ready to make trouble at this time. How could they show the majesty of the emperor of the Central Plains to the outside world? The only thing worthy of praise about him is probably His handwriting in painting and calligraphy, as well as the birth of royal heirs one after another in the harem.

"I still have something to do."

Zhao Mingcheng's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a squeaking door opening. He lifted the car curtain and saw several officials standing at the door of the government office. One of them came closer, leaned to the car window and whispered:
"Your Majesty happens to have something urgent to ask of you. I also ask Mr. Zhao to come in quickly."

Zhao Mingcheng silently thought about the content of the letter, and the old housekeeper asked: "It's getting late, sir, if you want to eat something more, or..."

Zhao Mingcheng stood up, gently put down his wife's hand, walked over to open the door, took the letter from the old housekeeper, tore it into pieces after reading it, and threw the scraps into the stove next to him. A gust of night wind blew. Zhao Mingcheng stared at the scattered ashes and said, "Something is going to happen in Hebei soon. We must keep our swords to ourselves, just in case."

But now that he was sitting behind the scenes, following the instructions of the King of Han, he could easily manipulate the soldiers of Lianghe and the Song Dynasty. Instead, he felt that his official career was meaningless.

Zhao Mingcheng sighed in his heart and waved his hand: "Go prepare the horse, I want to see Zhang Xuanfu."

"Mr. Lang, there's a letter from home."

"understood."

"I didn't see it. When the villain returned to his room, he only saw this letter falling on the table."

Li Qingzhao turned to look at him and said coldly: "I know how many things you have done with Beifang in private. I am a woman and I don't know much about it. I can't control your career, but you can't control where I want to stay!" "

"Send a maid to check on Madam. If she is asleep, she will be there to take care of her. If she is not asleep yet, tell her that I have important business."

The two were in a stalemate for a moment, and Zhao Mingcheng could only sigh, squeeze out a smile and whisper a few words of encouragement to his wife, slowly coaxing her back to the room, and then looked at the old housekeeper who stood at the door like a dead tree without saying a word. , whispered: "Where is the person who sent the message?"

Many years ago, when Zhao Mingcheng had to be idle at home due to strife in the court, he could pass the time with gold and stone antiques or being affectionate with his wife during the day, but when he was tossing and turning alone at night, he would still occasionally think about himself. career.

Li Qingzhao stood beside her husband, put her hand on the latter's shoulder, and said softly: "Go to bed early."

"north."

The Gong Gong princes in the court may seem majestic, but in the face of money and power, everyone is just a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy.

Zhao Mingcheng responded with a few words, straightened his clothes when he got off the car, and walked into the government office unhurriedly.

"Since we are husband and wife, how can we care about anything?"

The night was getting darker and darker, and the lobby was lit with more than a dozen large candles, and the lights were bright. Zhang Xiaochun, the Lianghe Xuanfu envoy, was sitting in the lobby, only wearing black regular clothes. There were several people sitting next to him, all dressed in various colors, and their expressions and demeanor were all the same. bureaucracy.

"Defu is here."

Zhang Xiaochun put down his tea cup and stood up to greet him. There was no need to be polite between the two of them. After sitting down, Zhang Xiaochun looked at the others and introduced: "This is Zhan Du, a colleague of Qingyuan Mansion, named Shi'an. The other two are both Zheng. The generals who luckily escaped after Yan's defeat were named Wang Zhen and Yang Weizhong, both of whom were loyal ministers and good generals of the Song Dynasty. "

These words, especially the last one, were hard to pronounce. Zhao Mingcheng understood what Zhang Xiaochun meant, nodded to the three of them, and looked at the remaining people.

"This is Liang Yangzu, the guard of the Xinde Prefecture, and this is Liu Yu, the prisoner of Hebei Province."

Zhang Xiaochun and Zhao Mingcheng are now more powerful than most people in official positions, and it is nothing to introduce them by name. What's more, the people here tonight are actually very clear in their thoughts.

Wang Zhen and Yang Weizhong were both generals of the defeated army and direct descendants of Tong Guan, so they have not revolted yet. After bowing to Zhao Mingcheng, they sat next to him without saying a word. Liang Yangzu himself and the civil servants could not pee. After the pot was gone, only Hebei Tixing Liu Yu took the initiative to smile and greeted Zhao Mingcheng repeatedly.

In addition to these people, there are four or five bureaucrats, all of whom are officials in Hebei.

Zhao Mingcheng originally wanted to discuss something with Zhang Xiaochun, but he didn't expect so many people to come tonight. He hesitated for a moment, then returned the favor and sat down.

"It's getting late. If anything happens to Xuanfu, please tell me quickly."

Zhan Du, a colleague of Qingyuan Prefecture, said: He once went to Yan to serve as an official. At that time, Yaoshi Guo was in charge of Yan. Wang Anzhong from the Song Dynasty was in charge of Yanjing, and Zhan Du was his deputy. Together, they created a "Zhang" "The incident", the city is very deep, and it is not a peaceful master.

Zhang Xiaochun is nominally the envoy to the two rivers, but in fact his power is limited to the surrounding prefectures and several states. Farther away, most of the bureaucratic guards have their own agendas. Even if they obey his orders, they don't know what they will do in private. What kind of tricks are you doing?

In fact, Zhao Mingcheng could guess that among the people here today, there might be a few who were spying for the court.

"Please take a seat."

Everyone returned to their seats, and Zhao Mingcheng said: "The incident in Jizhou was caused by refugees and some rebellious soldiers. The matter was not serious at first, but the Liang servant repeatedly tried to force us to have no way out. Now the imperial court has banned troops from the border. It was obvious that he wanted to ask questions.

We are all loyal ministers of the Song Dynasty, but if they are taken away indiscriminately, now that the servants are in power, not to mention us, there may be tens of thousands of people involved this time, so we have to be careful.

Mr. Zhang is an honest and honest elder with high moral character and high respect. Therefore, I believe that Mr. Zhang will be able to give an explanation to us and the imperial court. "

Hearing this, Zhang Xiaochun immediately glanced at Zhao Mingcheng gratefully. What a good brother Zhao, he set the tone for everyone by speaking. At least the weight of the words was directly placed on Zhang Xiaochun, without him having to speak in person to tell everyone to listen to him.

Zhang Xiaochun looked at everyone. Except for Zhan Du and Liang Yangzu, most of the others had low official positions. They were sitting here because of speculation. Naturally, they all recognized Zhang Xiaochun's dominant position.

"Brother Zhao is right about one thing, that is, we were originally loyal to the imperial court, but that castrated dog Liang Fangping kept making troubles. It was obviously to suppress bandits, but he first neglected and delayed until the refugees and thieves made trouble under our rule. At that time, we had to send troops to resist the suppression, but the old dog jumped out and said that we sent troops without authorization and wanted to rebel! "

The people present were all Lianghe officials. No matter what their motivations were for sitting here, they all showed expressions of the same hatred and hatred.

That old castrated dog is really capable of attracting hatred.

Zhang Xiaochun took a deep breath and said slowly: "If Liang Fangping continues to lead his army to control Daming Mansion, then sooner or later we will have a fight with him."

"war?"

Zhan Du sneered and said: "We are all officials of the Song Dynasty, but the people facing us are the officers and soldiers of the imperial court. Once the war breaks out, we will all be rebels. But what will we do then?"

He stood up and looked at the others.

"Don't think about it either. Although we don't want to die in exile on the charge of rebellion, the soldiers and people below can't see clearly at all. They will only think that we are traitors. If we want to mobilize troops, we can support them with money and food." In a few days, will we have righteousness in hand?"

Zhang Xiaochun fell silent immediately. He didn't want to betray the imperial court, but Zhao Mingcheng spoke appropriately:

"It's okay to be rebellious."

Zhan Du turned to look at him and sneered.

"Please also invite Mr. Zhao to see you for advice."

Zhao Mingcheng tapped the armrest of the chair with his fingers unhurriedly, attracting everyone's attention to him, and then said slowly: "On weekdays, the high-ranking officials do what they do, and the people below eat with filial piety. It is said that it is a matter of eating for the emperor and paying for the emperor. Who doesn’t know what you are thinking when you are sitting here now?”

Zhao Mingcheng stood up slowly, without even looking at Zhan Du, he walked straight to the desk in front of Zhang Xiaochun, reached out and took out a newly drawn map, stretched out his hand to shake the map open, and spread it flat on the ground.

"The map shows the cities and prefectures within the two rivers. Take a good look at it. Money, food, households, soldiers and horses are all in our hands. Think about it carefully."

Zhao Mingcheng's voice gradually increased, his gaze passed over everyone's face, and he suddenly said in a deep voice: "I am telling you clearly, no matter whether the war starts or not, as long as we surrender, our lives, the lives of our whole family, and the lives of our two rivers will be The lives of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats and soldiers are in the hands of others.

We will have to kneel in front of a jailer and beg him weepingly to help deliver family letters, or we will watch with our own eyes our wives and daughters being forced into the officialdom as slaves and being bullied by those who put us in prison! "

"Zhao Mingcheng, you are so presumptuous!"

Zhan Du said angrily: "What are you trying to provoke by saying this? What are you trying to insinuate? Well, even if what you said is true, then do we have to go because of what you said?"

His lips trembled and he did not dare to say those two words, as if he felt that Zhao Mingcheng was extremely rebellious.

Although I was exiled to Lingnan and my whole family was demoted as slaves, I still insisted on being a good minister of the Song Dynasty.

"If the name is not justified, the officials, soldiers and civilians below will not obey us! If we retreat now, we can still survive. If we act rashly now, we will lose money and food. The people below can even take our heads. Please reward me from the imperial court!”

If you don't take action, you can still survive with a certain probability. If you do, you will be able to survive.
Tsk, it’s not that it’s too stupid not to take action, it’s actually... Even if you do and you win, what will everyone do then?
Consecrate Zhang Xuan and make him an emperor?
The Lianghe system was originally a mess, and Zhang Xiaochun's own prestige was limited. He himself didn't even know why things had reached this point.

Zhao Mingcheng did not answer, and when everyone's hearts sank, and they thought he could not speak, he suddenly showed a smile and said: "Mr. Zhan's concern is nothing more than the name. This is actually the best thing to do." of."

"Oh?" Zhan Du laughed angrily and said coldly: "What I said is all for the sake of the court's justice. I heard that Mr. Zhao is always in conflict with me. What's wrong?"

Zhao Mingcheng raised his foot and stepped on the map, and landed on the location of Hebei slowly. His voice reached everyone's ears calmly.

"Don't forget, everyone, His Highness Prince Kang has been ill and detained in Hebei since he returned from Yandi, and cannot return to Beijing to resume his life."

"King Kang is brave and capable of taking on great responsibilities."

Zhao Mingcheng said calmly: "I am also here for the Song Dynasty. Don't forget, the seven states in the north of Hebei have been lost, Yanmen in the east of Hebei has changed hands, and the northern soldiers are very sharp. They are just waiting for us to take advantage of the opportunity when there is civil strife.

If we start a quarrel with the imperial court at this time, we will have two tigers fighting each other, one will be killed and the other will be injured. Wouldn’t it be that we are benefiting others in vain? "

"Then why can't you explain it to the court properly?"

Zhan Du seemed to have found the gap in Zhao Mingcheng's words, and immediately shouted: "The imperial court has never failed us."

Zhan Du seems to have forgotten that since Liu Ling of Yan State became famous, most of the Yan District officials in Wang Anzhong were dismissed. Zhan Du was one of them at that time. The imperial court did not have any good feelings toward these incompetent officials, and most of them hid it. Zhan Du I'm pretty lucky to be able to get into the position of Tongzhi.

Needless to say, Wang Zhen and Yang Weizhong have never been reinstated since the failure of the Northern Expedition. Even their family finances are extremely difficult.

Liu Yu himself was also criticized. He went to court several times to talk about the Bureau of Etiquette. Nowadays, the Zhao Guan family looks down on his origin and ridicules him in front of everyone. After several rounds, he sat down in the seat of punishment in Hebei. .

Most of the other bureaucrats were like this too. After hearing what Zhan Du said, they felt less guilty.

The imperial court has never failed your mother!

"Please be smarter, Mr. Zhan," Zhao Mingcheng said sternly: "We are not trying to do anything, let alone raise an army to rebel and confront the imperial court. What we have to do is to increase the bargaining chips in our hands so that the imperial court does not dare to Taking the risk of war, the court can only have a good talk with us.

The two armies are currently facing each other. If Liang Fangping takes the initiative to attack, we will fight or make peace, and we will have a name in hand when the time comes. "

"Okay, okay, don't say any more. Anyway, if King Kang is in Hebei, once the war breaks out, I will still have room for negotiation."

Zhang Xiaochun had no choice but to listen to the two arguing for a while, and he vaguely felt that Zhan Du seemed to be playing a good role with Zhao Mingcheng, while he was playing a bad role. However, if he looked carefully, he didn't think it was the same. Zhan Du's behavior clearly meant that he had a grudge against Zhao Mingcheng. At this time, he sat back angrily and remained silent.

"There is one more thing, you should be more careful."

Zhang Xiaochun coughed and said solemnly: "I heard that Liang Fangping has a general he relies on, named Du Chong. This person may not be neglected. You should be more careful."

(End of this chapter)