Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 174 Intentionally or Unintentionally

As for his own credit, Ye Chen knew it well, as did the emperor and the real important officials in the court who knew the truth behind the grain raising.The key is how much rainfall in the Yellow River Basin can be achieved in the remaining nearly one month.

And when the emperor asked about Zhao Dezhao, Zhao Dezhao also spared no effort to praise Ye Chen and Luo Gongming, but he didn't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, and he didn't say a word about Kaifeng Mansion and the four people sent by Zhao Pu.On this point, Zhao Dezhao had already communicated with Zhao Pu, and the latter even signaled it.So Zhao Pu had no opinion on this, but Zhao Guangyi was unhappy in his heart.In any case, Wang Xin and Hu Zhengyi played a vital role. Wang Xin even took the blame for Zhao Dezhao, offended someone, and was punished.

After singing the praises, it was time to reward the meritorious deeds. At this time, Zhao Pufang, who was standing there firmly, started to leave the class and played loudly: "Your Majesty. Wei Wang Dezhao is young and wise, quick-witted and capable. This trip to the south has already proved that His talent. However, I think that King Wei is young, although he has talent, but lacks experience, and now that King Wei is an adult, His Majesty should give King Wei some specific assignments, which will be of great benefit to King Wei."

"Well, Zhao Qing's words are reasonable..." Zhao Kuangyin has been in a really good mood these days since he learned that Ye Chen was out of danger and the food was successfully delivered back to the capital. He stroked his beard with a smile and asked: "So, In Xianggong's opinion, what should Dezhao do as an order?"

Zhao Pu bowed and said: "Emperor's eldest son is a king, he has reached the peak of a minister, and there is no such thing as a reward. Any official position is for Wei Wang to have experience, and there is no need to care about superiority. The minister thinks that although With the honor of the king of Wei, there is no need to allow him to be a high-ranking official. Otherwise, it will lose the role of allowing the king of Wei to practice more."

Zhao Kuangyin nodded slightly, expressing his deep understanding and saying: "That's natural."

Zhao Pu said calmly, "During this trip to the south, the King of Wei already has some understanding of the local customs and local officials. Your Majesty has spent half his life in the army and has outstanding martial arts. It is the so-called tiger father and tiger son. Therefore, I think it is better to seal The king of Wei inspected the front of the Palace of the Forbidden Army, let the king of Wei dabble in the military and become a virtuous king with both civil and military skills, what does your majesty think?"

Zhao Guangyi's face turned red when he heard this. The red light just covered his forehead, and his whole face turned white again, and then returned to normal. The color changed so fast that he kept secretly paying attention to Zhao Guangyi from the corner of his eye. Ye Chen couldn't help bluffing: "Damn it, what kind of inner strength Zhao Laoer is practicing..."

No wonder Zhao Guangyi had such an expression. As soon as Zhao Pu said these words, many officials in the court showed strange expressions, and their eyes began to wander between the emperor, Zhao Pu, and Zhao Guangyi.Some newly promoted officials didn't know the reason, and they didn't take it seriously. They were the second in command of the Imperial Army's front department, but they were senior military officers of the third rank, and there was a palace commander on top. Zhao Dezhao was the prince and prince, what a noble status , What's so great about condescending to be a check in front of the imperial palace?
However, some veteran officials in the court, especially those who were officials in the court at the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, heard Zhao Pu's words, which immediately brought back their memories, and their expressions were a little weird.You must know that today, before the addition of the yellow robe and the mutiny of Chen Qiao, the official position he held was inspected in front of the palace, and for this reason, this position has been vacant for more than ten years since the founding of the country.

If an outsider holds this position, there must be a lot of taboos.However, Zhao Dezhao, the eldest son of the emperor, held this position, which to some extent indicated his status as the crown prince.

Now Zhao Pu has taken the initiative to suggest that King Wei take up this military post. What does this mean?This is simply a resounding slap in the face to Zhao Guangyi in public!

But what Zhao Pu said was high-sounding, and it was inconvenient for Zhao Guangyi to refute it, and it was even inconvenient for his own people to refute it.In that case, even if Zhao Dezhao couldn't make inspections in front of the Palace of the Forbidden Army, there was no guarantee that the emperor would not be alerted to him, and the gains outweighed the losses.Zhao Guangyi could only knock down his teeth and swallow his blood, pressing his hatred deeply in his heart.

Zhao Guangyi didn't make a statement. Although people from his faction didn't come forward to agree, it was naturally inconvenient to come forward to oppose it. However, Zhao Kuangyin didn't seem to remember this old incident at all. He slowly glanced at the officials, stroked his beard and thought for a moment, nodded and said: " Alright, then I will designate Dezhao as an inspector in front of the Palace of the Forbidden Army, and let him learn the skills of being in the army."

After Zhao Pu heard this, a mysterious smile crept into the corner of his mouth. This was just a temptation. Now, he is confident that he has understood the intention of the official, so he can calmly arrange the next move.

After the court meeting, Ye Chen and the important ministers of the East and West (Privy Council and Political Affairs Hall).As well as the principal and deputy envoys of the third division, and Zhao Guangyi were retained by the emperor, entered the inner court, and stood on the royal hall of the Chongzheng Palace.

Zhao Pu knew that the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, Hedong, Guanzhong, and Kanxi had been raining and raining frequently, how could Zhao Kuangyin not know.

He has even asked the people in the river bank department to make predictions these days. If the weather continues for another half a month, according to the standard of river bank repairs in previous years, the Yellow River will burst and a major flood will be a foregone conclusion.Now because of the appearance of Ye Chen, knowing this in advance, it goes without saying that a large amount of food has been prepared, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians are mobilized to repair the embankment, which will eventually be higher, thicker, and stronger than in previous years.So far, the Yellow River has never broken its embankment.However, if such weather lasts for more than half a month, or if the number of rainstorms increases and the duration increases, no one dares to say whether the current river embankment will not burst.

In addition, what made the emperor of the Song Dynasty and the important officials of the court all look sad and heavy at this time was that Zhihe, who was presiding over the emergency repair of the embankment in Baima County, lifted the golden embankment to Yueze, and just sent someone to deliver it this morning.

Because what Ye Chen said was that Baima County would break the embankment, for more than a month, he mainly repaired a section of river embankment in Baima County. Although river embankments in other areas were also repaired, they were far inferior to Baima County.According to Yu Yueze's Memorial, even if Baima County does not break the embankment, several other nearby counties along the Yellow River are likely to burst their embankments.

"Emperor brother! How many labors can the counties under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng recruit?" Zhao Kuangyin asked.

Zhao Guangyi took a step forward and said: "Officials! The labor force in Kaifeng has been recruited to the maximum extent, and the adult males in every household have gone to repair the river embankment. At this time, there is no labor to be transferred."

Zhao Kuangyin sighed, he knew about this a long time ago, but now he was just holding on to his last hope, and couldn't help asking another question.

"Cao Qing! How many people in the Xiang army are available?" Zhao Kuangyin asked again.

Cao Bin smiled wryly, and said, "Officials! The Xiang army has all gone up the embankment."

Speaking of this, Cao Bin glanced at Zhao Kuangyin who was frowning tightly, but in the end he still didn't say the only way at this time.

Zhao Guangyi looked at Cao Bin's hesitant to speak, and remembered the wonderful opportunity that Mr. Cheng at the house had said before he came in the morning.Needless to say, Zhao Pu, the first and assistant prime minister, the two deputy ministers (shenzhizhengshi), the principal and deputy envoys of the Privy Council, and the principal and deputy envoys of the third department, none of these real important ministers of the Song Dynasty were from Zhao Guangyi.Naturally, she would not take the risk of being suspected by the emperor to say that sentence for him.

Zhao Guangyi's eyes finally fell on Ye Chen who was also frowning and thinking, thinking that this kid is also a thief, and he would definitely not say that.

There are [-] forbidden troops stationed in the capital, and [-] have been used to build the embankment in the early stage, and now there are still [-] forbidden troops left.

Everyone, including Ye Chen, knew that the only manpower available at this time was the [-] imperial troops loyal to the emperor.But who would dare to suggest that the last [-] forbidden troops leave the guards of the capital and the emperor alone, and go to repair the embankment.

What's more, would the wise and mighty emperor not have thought of this?
In fact, everyone was guessing at the emperor's silence at this time, and the emperor was also weighing gains and losses.

Is the life and death of tens of thousands of people in a county under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng more important, or their own safety.This is the evaluation and choice of the emperor at this time.This kind of decision can only be made by the emperor himself, and outsiders are not allowed to have it, and dare not have the slightest suggestion, including the closest son, queen, and brother.

Since ancient times, no matter Confucianism, Mohism, or even Taoism, the thought of "the people are the foundation of the state" has been contained to varying degrees in "Zuo Zhuan", "Guoyu", "Guanzi" and other works.For example, "Laozi" clearly declares: "The sage has no permanent heart, but the people are at heart."

The orthodox Confucianism upheld by the Song Dynasty represented the strongest and most concentrated people-oriented thought.The core of Confucius and Mencius' thought is "benevolence". The benevolent loves others, which is the fundamental starting point of people-oriented thought.He even once put forward the shocking concept of "the people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least".

But when such a choice arises in real reality, who would dare to protect the lives of the people regardless of the safety of the emperor.Even Wei Zheng, the most famous admonisher in Chinese history, and Bao Zheng, who was famous for being straightforward and outspoken in the Tang Dynasty, and Bao Zheng, who was decades later in the original history, probably would not dare to say those words in this state .

Zhao Kuangyin was weighing it himself, and at the same time wanted to see everyone's expressions at this time.It's a pity that except for Ye Chen who has been standing upright, with his head raised normally, his face is tightly knit, and he looks like he is thinking.The others all lowered their heads halfway, making it difficult to see their faces clearly.

"This kid is the most magnanimous." Zhao Kuangyin whispered in his heart.

"The [-] imperial guards guarding the capital must not leave lightly. Gentlemen! Is there any good way to speed up the construction of the embankment?" Zhao Kuangyin asked in a deep voice.

Zhao Pu glanced at Zhao Guangyi and said, "Officials! The seventeen counties under Kaifeng's jurisdiction have reached the limit of their labor force, but Kaifeng has a population of nearly one million. If one hundred thousand laborers can be recruited in Kaifeng, one month With time, we should be able to strengthen and heighten the embankments in all places except Baima County."

Zhao Guangyi's complexion changed slightly, and before Zhao Kuangyin could say anything, he immediately said: "Officials! This is absolutely impossible! Although Kaifeng City is now known as a million people, there are only about 50 people with household registration, and the rest are from all over the world. The floating population who came to the capital to work or do business, let alone the fact that the existence of these people is directly related to the prosperity of the capital, even if they are recruited as laborers, is against the law, and they can leave the capital if they are forced to recruit them. There are more than 50 registered permanent residents in Kaifeng Among them, males account for about half, which is about 25, and only about 16 of them are between the ages of 50 and 15. Among them, more than 1 officials accounted for more than 1, and the number of more than 5 officials Family members, according to the regulations of previous dynasties, are exempted from military service. According to the five exempted men in an official's family, there are only 5 people left. Only 3 to [-] people."

(End of this chapter)