Song Dynasty

Chapter 54 Zhao Gou ([-])

Chaotic clouds rolled.

The whole of China was shrouded in cold rain, and bloody battles broke out everywhere in Huaibei, Huaixi, Hebei, Henan, and Shaanxi.The first half of the three years of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty were spent in war.China is in ruins, not one of the people survives, and the wilderness is covered by bones.The vast land seems to have returned to the prehistoric, and civilization has been obliterated by barbaric massacres.But there are still people with lofty ideals who are unwilling to stand up, just to preserve the blood of my Great Song and Han family, and to preserve the little bits of fire.

But at this time, the emperor of the Song Dynasty was in a different way when he was in Jiankang Mansion.

It's a strange thing to say, from the year of Jingkang to the present, the Jin people went south repeatedly, and there were bandits in the local area, and the Jiangnan and Jiangbei were corrupted, but this ancient capital of the Six Dynasties was not affected by the flames of war.

Unlike Kaifeng in Tokyo, which had a population of one million and old guards wearing silk shoes, Jinling only had about [-] people, and the houses in the city seemed old.

Most of these ancient houses with blue bricks and green tiles have a history of more than a hundred years, and the oldest ones can even be traced back to the time of Wang Xie.

The ancestor of art set the tripod to Kaifeng, dredged the Bian River, and dug a canal. With the benefit of water transportation, grain and rice from the south of the Yangtze River could be sent to Tokyo in an endless stream.As the former center of Jiangnan, Jiangning is not even considered a transshipment hub, and it has gradually declined.

However, since the Jingkang State Change and the official family fled south, the status of this ancient capital of the Six Dynasties suddenly became important.

That's right, Jiang Ning may not be considered the economic leader of the Yangtze River Basin, but he has the natural danger of the Yangtze River, and he has the shape of a dragon and a tiger.Mastering this big city can firmly control the entire lower reaches of the Yangtze River.The most wonderful thing is that this place is vulnerable and difficult to attack, allowing the officials who have been chased by the golden soldiers to have a mental breakdown for a moment to breathe.

Yes, in the past few years, the life of the official Zhao Gou has been miserable, and it can be said that he is always in a state of fleeing and preparing to flee.He first fled from Hejian Mansion to Yingtian Mansion in Nanjing.Then he fled to Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, and finally went to Hangzhou.

After the mutiny of Liu and Miao in Hangzhou, the line was moved to Jiangning, and the Jiangning mansion was changed to Jiankang.

If you build your capital here, you can get well-being.

As the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, this stone city has seen enough chaos and usurpation.Just like a calm and deep old man, calm and serene, not alarmed by the police.

The big city was silent, but since Zhao Gou entered the city, it has come alive here.

In the rain, the trees, houses, and streets are fresh, like an ink painting.

But on the big river, it is a different scene. The densely packed 艨艟 Dou Ke patrols back and forth on the river, and the grain boats rise like clouds and send the wealth from all over the south of the Yangtze River to the city nearby. He let out a long sigh of relief.

As dusk approached, the lights in the city came on one after another, and the sound of silk and bamboo frolicking came along with the wind.The flowers are red, the willows are green, the flowers are red and the willows are green, and the birds are singing and dancing, which brings people back to Tokyo in those days.

I don't know what happened in the past.

In the center of Jinling City, there is a small earthen hill. At some point, tall buildings and luxury houses were built on the earthen hill. There is a red minaret standing tall, surrounded by a small city wall, on which stands a full armor scholar.

Everyone in old Jinling knows that the ancient land here is called Taicheng, which was the seat of Tai Province and the imperial palace from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasties.Later, it occupied a large area. Unfortunately, after the war, most of the Taiwan Province and the imperial palace were destroyed, leaving only a small area in the center.Willows are planted everywhere, so the so-called "ruthless is the Taicheng willow, and it is still a ten-mile dike in a smoke cage."

Today, this place has naturally become the official residence, and it may become the official capital of the Song Dynasty in the future.Judging by the attitude of the officials, it seems that they have no intention of returning to Kaifeng.

Naturally, the Tianjia stayed there, and there was no sound at all. It was almost dusk, and there was not a single noise in the whole walk.There is only the "rustling" sound of rainwater falling on the leaves and falling on the soldiers.

In a blink of an eye, the soldiers seemed to have been fished out of the water, dripping wet from their bodies.

But everyone seemed to be motionless like clay sculptures and wood carvings, showing excellent military discipline.These military men are the imperial guards of the official family, and they are all first-class talents.

However, most of those who can be the emperor's personal guards are the children of innocent families who were born in officials.Compared with martial arts, officials value their loyalty more, that is to say, political review must be passed.Especially after Liu and Miao's mutiny, the emperor became more suspicious, and the guards around him also changed every three days, and they all turned into a group of hairy children after the change.

This can be seen from their immature faces and the circle of fluff on their lips. Compared with those soldiers on the Huaixi battlefield who had gone through bloody battles, their faces were full of murderous looks, and they were fierce and fierce, these people's eyes were pure and soft, but their eyes were soft. Still trying to hold his chest up.

For them, it is a great honor to be able to serve the official family close to them. As for the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Huaixi and Huaibei, how can they see it.

A middle-aged official in scarlet clothes strode over. He was in his early forties, and his stature was neither tall nor short, making him look a bit thin.Although there were attendants behind him holding up umbrellas, the rain still left a large black spot on his shoulders.

The middle-aged official was probably in poor health, and his face was pale from the cold.

Looking at his clothes, he is already a high-ranking official of the second rank, just like the officials who entered the officialdom during the Xuanhe period, with clear eyes and bright eyes, he is actually a rare handsome man.

Seeing him going straight into the forbidden zone, two guards went up to meet him and shouted, "Who is it?"

The middle-aged official was about to speak when he heard a rustle of armor leaves. A man who looked like a young officer walked over and cursed: "You bunch of pickled bastards, you don't even know Zhang Xiang, get out of here!" .”

After looking at the two guards, he stretched out his hand to hold the hand of the middle-aged official, and shouted affectionately: "Mr. Zhang, you old man is here. I got an order from the official to welcome you here, saying that as soon as I saw you, Take you there without stopping."

The man named Zhang Xiang shook off the young officer's hand and scolded with a smile: "I'm not seventy or eighty, so I need your help? Zhengfu, the officials called me into the palace in such a hurry, but for the great victory in Huaixi? Old man He is drafting a memorial, and after finishing the final plan, he will submit the good news to the imperial court, but he doesn't want the officials to know about it, his eyes and ears are very sharp!"

That's right, this person is none other than Zhang Jun and Zhang Deyuan, the titular supreme military commander of the Southern Song dynasty.

Hearing the slight sarcasm in Zhang Jun's mouth, the young officer who was called Zhengfu walked while lowering his voice and said, "Mr. Zhang, the situation has been turbulent this year, and the officials are very impatient. They haven't slept for several months. I've had a restful sleep. I took a few doses of medicine before, and I got better. When the battle in Huaixi came, the old disease relapsed, so you have to be more careful later, old man."

Zhang Jun raised his eyebrows, and was about to speak, when an anxious voice came from a mansion at the other end: "Zhang Qing, what did Yang Yizhong ask you to be careful about?"

The young officer Yang Yizhong's face changed color, and he hurriedly said: "Officials, the road is slippery, I asked Mr. Zhang to step carefully."

I only heard the voice in the room, which seemed to be a smile but not a smile: "Yes, the road in this world is slippery, and I accidentally fell down. We all have to be careful and careful. Zhang Qing came in to talk."

Yes, the person in the room is Zhao Gou, an official from the Song Dynasty.The ninth prince of the Taoist emperor, it is said that no matter what you say, the throne cannot be discussed with him.

He is cheerful and bold, different from the elegant and romantic Taoist emperor, but he is good at martial arts, and he can make a hard bow with a stone.Back then when the Jingkang State had an incident, the officials had entered the Jinying camp as a hostage, chatting and laughing with the Jurchens.

During the second battle of Tokyo, he received the imperial decree to go to the Golden Camp for peace talks.If it wasn't for Zongze's persuasion to escape to Hebei, he might be captured by the Jurchen like his father and brother and go to the north to become a prisoner of the barbarians.

After going to Hebei, Zhao Gou opened the Grand Marshal's Mansion and led the troops to rescue Kaifeng.Later, the second emperor fell into the enemy's hands, and Zhao Gou succeeded to the throne with the support of his subordinates.

At the beginning of his succession, Zhao Gou had the heart to cheer up.Unfortunately, under one failure after another, he gradually became depressed.Especially after Liu and Miao changed, they seemed to have changed into a different person, becoming dark and gloomy, speaking with a twist of a gun and a stick, and looking at people with suspicion.

Zhang Jun disapproved of the way the officials behaved. As a veteran minister, he was also extremely dissatisfied.

Hearing this, he strode into the monastery, handed over his memorial and the victory report, and said: "Huaixi was a great victory, Li Cheng begged to surrender, and the great bandit Li Yu gave the head. Since then, Huaixi and Huaibei have been recovered by our court. , Congratulations to the official family."

Zhao Gou took the brochure and the victory report, and without looking at them, just threw them on the case, and smiled lightly: "I heard that Wang Shen, Wang Daosi, who recruited Li Cheng and took Li Yu's head from among the millions of troops, is your protégé. Unexpectedly, there are so many talents under Zhang Qing's sect. Sending out a random disciple can turn the situation in Huaixi around by himself. The country is in the midst of employing people. If Qing's family has good talents, you might as well recommend a few to me. Don’t cherish yourself with a broom!”

There was a hint of guard in these words, Zhang Jun frowned, and said, "I only have a few staff members on hand, none of them are from serious backgrounds, and my talents are limited, so what can I do?"

It took only a day and a night for Liu Guangshi's good news to be delivered to Jiankang by express delivery, which is really unimaginably fast.When Zhang Jun received this good news, he was very excited. As the confidant of the officials, as the actual prime minister and head of the Song Dynasty, no one knew better than him that this was a mess.

First of all, the Jurchens are ready to move in the north, and there is always the possibility of going south. , and secondly, there are bandits everywhere in the Jianghuai area, let alone suppress them, if they don't come to beat you, you will be Amitabha.There is no way, in war, the first thing to fight is money and food.Now the country's finances have reached the point where it cannot be collapsed anymore. The officials of various ministries have not received their salaries for half a year, and the soldiers are hungry and full, and they are about to disperse.

In order to support this chaotic situation, Zhang Jun not only kept ordering the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River to send money and food to Jiangning as soon as possible, but also the money printing machine kept printing Jiaozi and Huizi day and night. The promotion of the new banknotes was even more violently suppressed by means of thunder, which made the government and the public mourn and everyone reviled.

If Zhang Jun hadn't held a public heart and a firm will, he would have been scolded to death long ago.However, in the past month, his hair is still much grayer, and his body is also getting worse.

Now, the officials, the imperial court, and all the armies, including Zhang Deyuan, are all looking at Jianghuai eagerly, waiting for the autumn grain to be put into storage, so as to overcome this difficulty.

(End of this chapter)