Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 581
Xu Xuan sighed, and said: "The Southern Tang Dynasty is coming to an end, the official and the prime minister are fellow travelers, and they will serve as officials in the court of the Song Dynasty in the future, so naturally they have to support each other. What's more, the prime minister may have forgotten, but the official But I will never forget that when I took part in the scientific examination and won the first prize, it was the prime minister who was the chief examiner. The prime minister has been kind to the subordinate. Although there have been many conflicts in the court due to different political opinions in recent years, that is For official business, I have never forgotten the kindness that I have shown to the prime minister in private."

Not long after, Han Xizai, who had already made up his mind, came to Chongzheng Hall.

After kneeling down to Zhao Kuangyin, Han Xizai took a quick glance at Zhao Pu out of the corner of his eye, and found that the latter's face was really ugly, so he thought it was so.

At this time, Zhao Kuangyin asked straight to the point: "Han Xizai! I asked you two questions. If you answer truthfully and sincerely surrender to Song Dynasty, I will allow you to be a high-ranking official. Otherwise, if you have half a lie, you don't have to go back to Jinling." .”

Hearing the words, Han Xizai couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He was thinking about whether to show his loyalty to the scholar-officials before expressing his allegiance to the Song Dynasty. Unexpectedly, before he could speak, Zhao Kuangyin asked, "Han Xizai, did you go to the prime minister last night?" Has the government met Zhao Pu?"

Han Xizai pretended to be hesitant, with panic on his face, and said, "It is true that the minister had something to do last night, so he went to see Mr. Zhao."

Zhao Kuangyin looked cold, glanced at Zhao Pu, and then asked Han Xizai: "Then you gave Zhao Pu 5 taels of banknotes from Wuyue Bank."

Han Xizai's heart was shocked, and he thought that Xu Xuan really didn't lie to me, and the last trace of doubt about Xu Xuan in his heart dissipated immediately.However, he had been the prime minister in the Southern Tang Dynasty for more than 5 years, and he had his own way to excuse himself. He immediately said: "The foreign minister met with His Majesty yesterday. There is no benefit in the livelihood of the people in the world and my Chinese orthodox inheritance. As the successor of Confucianism, the foreign ministers should put my Chinese orthodoxy first. Your Majesty's Great Song Dynasty is now my Chinese orthodox, so the foreign ministers have surrendered to the Song Kingdom , Allegiance to His Majesty's thoughts. It is precisely because of this that I went to see Zhao Xianggong. As for the 5 taels of silver, I heard that the Song Dynasty's finances were tight, and I wanted to hand over the [-] taels of silver to the Song Dynasty through Zhao Xianggong. It can be regarded as a humble gift from the minister to surrender to His Majesty."

Zhao Pu was terrified when he heard it, but Han Xizai's explanation gave him some chances to argue, and he immediately rushed in front of others and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I didn't intend to deceive you. I just want to wait for Han Xizai to surrender completely. Then take out the 5 taels of silver and report it to His Majesty."

Lu Duosun immediately said: "Mr. Zhao has always been greedy for money, and he has already been famous all over the world. Why should he argue at this time?"

Dong Yu, a scholar from Zhao Pu's family, immediately stood up and shouted: "Lord Lu, be careful, why did Mr. Zhao come in the name of being greedy for money? How can Master Lu speak so frivolously as a great Confucian in the Song Dynasty?"

Wang Yuefeng sneered and said, "What do you mean by prudence? The so-called 'there is no wind in the hole, and there is no wave without the wind!', not to mention the fact that what Xueshi Lu said is not frivolous, but the real thing."

The left servant of Shang Shuxing shot Li Jinsi and said: "Master Wang, as Yushi Zhongcheng, how can you exaggerate so much? What you say is all about the facts, but you are just catching wind and shadows. As the head of the officials of the Song Dynasty, Mr. Zhao is usually fair. To offend some villains, Master Wang’s so-called groundless rumors are nothing more than villains coming out to tell stories, so how can it be used as evidence.”

Tao Gu said in a loud voice, "Master Li's words are wrong. What is a villain and what is a gentleman? Master Li kept saying that."

"Okay!" Before Tao Gu could finish speaking, Zhao Kuangyin suddenly interrupted him with a shout, everyone was shocked, and quickly turned to face the emperor, bowed down, and no one dared to say another word.

Zhao Kuangyin glanced across the audience, and finally took a meal on Zhao Pu and Zhao Guangyi, and said, "We will discuss this matter later, and we will retreat."

As soon as the words fell, Zhao Kuangyin got up and left the Chongzheng Hall without waiting for everyone to bow down.

Zhao Pu and Zhao Guangyi raised their heads at the same time and looked at each other. There was a cold light in each of their eyes. At this moment, the peace and even the smile they had when they met each other as usual had disappeared. To disguise.It's just that Zhao Guangyi's expression was a little smug at this time, while Zhao Pu's expression was just the opposite, it was extremely ugly, and his brows and eyes were extremely depressed.

Retreating to the apse, Zhao Kuangyin remembered that there was a young man making trouble before going to court today, so he asked someone to bring the young man.When the young man saw the emperor, he fell to the ground and bowed, shouting long live.

Zhao Kuangyin asked angrily, "What's your name? Why did you sue the prime minister?"

The man said: "Your Majesty, my humble minister is called Lei Youlin, and now he is the guard of the left prison. He is Lei Dexiang's son."

When Lei Dexiang was mentioned, Zhao Kuangyin suddenly remembered an incident that happened more than a month ago before the army marched out of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

At that time, he was reviewing affairs in the martial arts lecture hall, when Lei Dexiang from the Dali Temple suddenly barged in with an angry face. As soon as he entered the door, he couldn't restrain his indignation and shouted loudly, saying that he was an official of Dali Temple and a member of the hall, and that he was attached to the prime minister , without authorization to increase the criminal name.The more he talked, the more angry he became, and he even called him by his name in front of several ministers. Zhao Pu relied on his power to forcefully buy houses, accept bribes, and collect money.

In all fairness, Zhao Kuangyin also knew that what Lei Dexiang said might be true, otherwise he wouldn't have used this method to make such a statement in front of him?

But from an emotional point of view, he was unwilling to believe that this was the truth at the time, and he was even more unwilling to let Zhao Pu, a fellow brother in need, fall into his hands.He thought for a while, and then he scolded Lei Dexiang: "It's nonsense. Even if a tripod bowl has ears, don't you even have an ear? Haven't you heard that Zhao Pu is the minister of our country?"

He originally wanted to dismiss Lei Dexiang and save some face for Zhao Pu.Unexpectedly, this Lei Dexiang was upright and irritable, he only accepted death, and actually started arguing in front of Zhao Kuangyin.Zhao Kuangyin was furious, and immediately ordered someone to drag him out, and handed him over to Yousi for a felony.But after Zhao Kuangyin's anger dissipated, he felt that he was being treated too harshly, so he ordered again, and only relegated him to the Shangzhou Sihu to join the army for the crime of trespassing, and once again defended Zhao Pu.

In fact, Zhao Kuangyin also knew that most of Lei Dexiang's participation was true, but he deeply felt that Zhao Pu had made great contributions. The Great Song Dynasty was about to unify the world, and he needed someone who could help him govern the world. At this time, he still couldn't do without Zhao Pu's assistance.Second, he really didn't want to belittle meritorious ministers casually, so he had a little personal affair, "it's taboo for those who are close to each other", and demoted Lei Dexiang from his post.

However, today Lei Youlin, Lei Dexiang's son, is coming to sue Zhao Pu again, what exactly is he going to do?
Thinking of this, Song Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but darken his face, and asked coldly: "Oh, you are Lei Dexiang's son, could it be that you are dissatisfied with your father's affairs."

"Your Majesty misunderstood this official, and my father and I did these things only out of sincerity to the country." Lei Youlin kowtowed.

Seeing that Lei Youlin's expression did not seem to be fake, Zhao Kuangyin asked in a slow tone, "Then why are you pestering the prime minister so hard?"

"Then Zhao Pu thinks that he is under one person and above ten thousand people. He has the power in the court and covers the sky with one hand. Not to mention, in the past few years, he has been greedy for ink and plundered by stealth. Who doesn't know about it? , if he recanted from now on and made a slight change, the minister would never come to sue. But Zhao Pu not only didn't know how to restrain himself, but also intensified and insisted on going his own way, and even his disciples, old officials, relatives and friends followed suit." Then, Lei Youlin told him How Zhao Pu and his cronies swindled the public for personal gain, embezzled public funds, rigged their hands, extorted and accepted bribes, blackmailed subordinates, and exploited the local facts. The time, place, witnesses, and material evidence are all there. Zhao Kuangyin couldn't believe it.

Zhao Kuangyin had no choice but to order Lei Youlin to step back temporarily, and immediately called someone to call Li Junhao, ordering him to secretly investigate what Lei Youlin said.

As a result, Li Junhao took out a thick playbook on the spot and presented it to Zhao Kuangyin.It turns out that many of Zhao Pu's major crimes of corruption and bribery have been found out in this memorial, and even several of his henchmen, the left servant of Shangshu Sheng Li Jinsi, Dong Yu of Zhongshushe, Hu Zan and Li Kedu, the empress officials, Secretary Sheng Zhongcheng Wangdong, and more than a dozen people were also implicated.

Zhao Kuangyin was furious, and what Li Junhao from the supervisory department showed was completely different from Lei Youlin's meaning. So far, the evidence found by the supervisory department of Huaxia Weifu has never been wrong.But Zhao Kuangyin couldn't tolerate disbelief.

"Since I ascended the throne, I have repeatedly warned my subjects to avoid corruption and promote honesty, avoid extravagance and save money. I have repeatedly increased the salaries of officials at all levels, intending to support honesty with high salaries. But I didn't expect Zhao Pu to be so disappointing, even his front and back. Greedy and despicable people, moths of the country."

Zhao Kuangyin was furious. He couldn't tolerate the corruption and bribery that he hated most in his life to spread in his court and run amok.He immediately ordered Dali Temple to discuss how to punish corrupt officials below Zhao Pu.

With the cooperation of Li Junhao leading the Supervision Department of the Huaxia Weifu, Dali Temple came up with the results on the same day. Dong Yu, the empress officials Hu Zan, Li Kedu and others were executed and demoted to the people;

However, Zhao Kuangyin still couldn't make up his mind about how to deal with Prime Minister Zhao Pu.Even though he also knew that only punishing these middle-level officials would be like hitting flies instead of tigers, but he still couldn't bear to get serious about Zhao Pu, a confidant in need and a friend of ordinary people.

However, the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop.Zhao Guangyi personally planned this "reversal" campaign more and more intensively.Zhao Pu was powerless to fight back and forth with open and dark arrows, swords and swords.

Not long after punishing Li Jinsi and others, Lu Duoxun finally made a serious move.

(End of this chapter)