Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Ju Ming captured Hanzhong, 800 miles of express trains had been sent to Tokyo.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was celebrating the completion of Gen Yue. He personally wrote the "Imperial System of Gen Yue", asked hundreds of officials to write poems to congratulate him, and ordered the Dasheng Mansion to compose new music for the performance.

It was originally a depression in the northeast corner of the city. It was originally filled with residential buildings and shops, and it was filled with 150-meter-high peaks.

There are as many as three peaks, with rivers, canyons and lakes. There are buildings scattered everywhere, including pavilions, pavilions, and even huts and cottages.

Among the mountains and rivers, there are precious flowers and trees planted everywhere. In the forest garden, rare birds and animals are kept free. Strange rocks, caves, pavilions... everything is dazzling.

Tong Guan, who was defeated in Hebei, is still concealing the truth and keeps getting good news.

Now that Genyue has been completed, there are great joys both inside and outside. How could Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty not be happy?

Amidst the sounds of rituals and music, Song Huizong accepted congratulations from hundreds of officials and held a banquet for three days, as if he had reached the pinnacle of his life.

"Eight hundred miles is urgent, eight hundred miles is urgent..."

Ordinary officials were not qualified to read it, so it was always transferred to the Privy Council.

Zheng Juzhong, who was the privy envoy, thought something big had happened in Hebei. Only when he got it did he realize that it was from Hanzhong. He opened it and read it carefully. His hands were shaking. Before he finished reading, he walked outside: "Prepare the sedan...bring my sedan up quickly!"

Zheng Juzhong was old and sick, and could no longer ride a horse. He rushed to the palace in a sedan chair.

Song Huizong was taking his domestic and foreign favorites, princes and princesses to visit the newly completed Gen Mountain.

Eunuch Li Yan rushed over: "Official, Privy Zheng has something urgent to see you."

Song Huizong smiled and said: "It's just right for him to come and play with us."

Li Yan said in a low voice: "It seems that there are rebels again, and Privy Zheng is very anxious. I wanted to ask more clearly, but Privy Zheng scolded me to report it."

Are there rebels again?

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty suddenly felt a headache. Why didn't the people know how to live peacefully? They had to rebel and cause trouble for themselves!

Not long after, Zheng Juzhong was helped over and saw the emperor in a pavilion: "Your Majesty, Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming and their sons have rebelled in Yangzhou and have now occupied three counties in Yangzhou."

"What, his father and son rebelled?" Song Huizong thought he heard wrongly.

Wang Fu was busy with the expedition against Liao and did not have time to spend more time with the emperor.

Favorites such as Tong Guan, Cai You, and Tan Zhen also led troops in Hebei and never returned to Tokyo.

Around Song Huizong, in addition to the princes and princesses, there were Liang Shicheng, Li Bangyan, Bai Shizhong, Zhang Bangchang, Zhao Ye and others.

Not only the emperor didn't believe it, but the others were also surprised.

Zhu Guoxiang is currently a Taoist official, and Zhu Ming is a commoner. How could this combination rebel? How could it be possible to rebel?

Zheng Juzhong sent an urgent report and said: "Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Jingxiang all have no soldiers to fight. Now that the Zhu family and his son are causing rebellion, I am afraid that the local area will be difficult to resist. Please quickly recruit an elite group of Western troops."

Song Huizong read it carefully. Although he was extremely angry, he did not panic. He only said: "You and Wang Fu take matters into your own hands and gather a large number of troops to wipe out the Zhu thieves. They must be captured alive and brought to Tokyo. I want to interrogate them personally and ask them why." ungrateful!"

Zheng Juzhong was stunned and felt that something was not good. The emperor had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem.

He quickly said: "Your Majesty, the Zhu family and his son have seized three counties in Yangzhou within ten months. They must have been well prepared. Once an army breaks out, it will be difficult for the locals to resist. I am afraid that the entire Hanzhong will be gone now. Please stop the attack. The Liao army will bring back all the elites to quell the chaos!"

"Don't be alarmist. How much trouble can these two civil servants make? Qing and Wang Fu can handle it." Song Huizong still didn't take it seriously, and even felt that Zheng Juzhong was using an excuse to stop the invasion of Liao.

Zheng Juzhong always opposed the invasion of Liao, which had long made the emperor dissatisfied.

"Your Majesty, this matter is not trivial and must be suppressed with all our strength!" Zheng Juzhong said anxiously.

Song Huizong said impatiently: "Go and discuss with Wang Fu. I still want to visit Genyue."

Zheng Juzhong looked at the emperor stupidly, with a look of disbelief on his face. Has this foolish emperor been kicked in the head by a donkey?

Eunuch Li Yan said: "Privy Master Zheng, please come."

Zheng Juzhong dragged his old and sick body away. He was already a treacherous minister in the eyes of many people, but now he has become one of the few central ministers who are still sober.

Li Bangyan, Bai Shizhong, Zhang Bangchang, Zhao Ye and other close ministers looked at each other at this moment, wanting to give advice but did not dare.

Zheng Juzhong went to Wang Fu for discussion. After reading the urgent report, Wang Fu was so angry that he pounded the table and said, "The Zhu thieves misled me. The great cause of conquering Liao Dynasty is at a critical moment. What kind of rebellion are they making at this time?"

"If you don't attack Liao, how can they dare to cause chaos?" Zheng Juzhong said angrily.

Wang Fu said: "The troops on the front line cannot be withdrawn. Once they withdraw, they will be scattered thousands of miles away!"

Zheng Juzhong said: "We sent 250,000 troops before and after. Counting the troops from Hebei and Shandong, the total number has reached 300,000. Your dispatching of 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops will have no impact on the overall situation of the expedition against Liao."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Wang Fu really didn't dare to touch the frontline troops. Others didn't know. He didn't know that Tong Guan was hiding his defeat?

Zheng Juzhong was furious: "How can we wait any longer? Sichuan will be gone if we wait any longer!"

Wang Fu said: "We can let Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jinghu, and Western Beijing recruit troops and collect food to block the dangerous passes and trap the Zhu family and his son in Hanzhong. After the victory over Liao, we can send the elite of the Western Army to annihilate them!"

Zheng Juzhong banged the table and angrily shouted: "In order to conquer Liao and become king, you completely disregard the safety of the country. I will definitely impeach you!"

"Then go ahead and impeach him, but the Hebei army will definitely not be transferred back." Wang Fu was too lazy to say more.

The two broke up unhappy, and Zheng Juzhong wrote an impeachment memorial when he returned home. Soon, the rebellion of the Zhu family and his son became known throughout the court.

The ministers were extremely surprised by this, especially the upright ministers, who were heartbroken. Then, they united to impeach Wang Fu, saying that it was the traitors in the court who were causing trouble, and they forced the good Tanhua Lang to rebel.

Ju Ming has already captured Hanzhong, and the people in Chaozhong are still quarreling.

In the name of the Privy Council, Zheng Juzhong ordered local officials to recruit troops and supplies, and they must occupy dangerous passes and block strategic passages everywhere.

Once Hanzhong is blocked, the Zhu family and his son will become turtles in the urn.

More than ten days later, two urgent reports were sent one after another.

One copy was sent from Jingnan Road. They realized later that Ju Ming was already attacking Xingyuan Mansion, and the local officials knew that Jinzhou had been lost.

One was sent from Shaanxi, saying that merchants had sent news that Hanzhong had been captured by Zhu thieves.

Wang Fu finally couldn't sit still anymore and invited Zheng Juzhong to a meeting and even Zhao Yu, who promoted the Taoist temple.

A few years ago, 100,000 Lunan Yi rebelled. Although 30,000 Western troops were mobilized to suppress it, the real leader was the civil servant Zhao Yu.

This man was handsome and knowledgeable about military matters. He could have been the Minister of the Ministry of War, but he was squeezed out by Tong Guan to manage the Taoist temple.

Wang Fu had no grudge against Zhao Yu, so he kept his arrogance very low and asked, "I wonder if Zhao Longtu has any good strategies to quell the chaos?"

Zhao Yu said bluntly: "There is no other way but to bring back the Western Army. The local Xiang Army is not available."

Wang Fu asked again: "It's a long way from Hebei to Hanzhong, and the Western Army won't be able to come back for a while. If you take charge of the Sichuan troops, can you wipe out the Zhu bandits?"

Zhao Yu replied: "If I go to Sichuan, I can only protect Shu."

"That's enough," Wang Fu said, "Secure the sacred land of Yizhou first, so that the Red Thieves can't expand their army wantonly, and there will definitely be insufficient food. In this way, your Excellency will be able to dispatch troops from various places as you go through Sichuan, Jinghu and the southwestern route of Beijing." Horse money and grain. We can suppress it if we can, but if we really can’t, it will have to be postponed until at least next summer.”

"Next summer?" Zhao Yu exclaimed.

Wang Fu asked: "Is it difficult to do it?"

Zhao Yu sighed: "We can only maintain it as much as possible."

Wang Fu cupped his hands and said, "Please!"

The three men also called the Minister of War and the Ministry of Household to discuss the detailed strategy in detail.

Then it was discovered that the biggest problem in eradicating the Zhu bandits was that the court lacked money and food to recruit soldiers.

Wang Fu became ruthless and decided to completely extend the new miscellaneous tax of making money to all states and counties across the country.

At the same time, the husband's money was levied and the people searched for 10 million yuan.

While everyone was discussing, an official sent a message.

Wang Fu was the first to read it. He sat on his chair blankly and said with a sad face: "The officials will definitely be angry. It will be impossible if we don't transfer the Western Army back."

Zheng Juzhong snatched the memorandum. This thing was a printed matter. I don't know how many were printed and distributed throughout the world.

I saw it written above: "Discussing the Dufu Zhao Jixi"——

"I heard: When people are gathered together to make a family, when families are gathered together they are a country, and when a country is gathered together there is a world...that is why people are the foundation of all countries in the world. A husband, an emperor, is a king who builds up people..."

"There may be a sage who does not seek his own benefit, but makes the whole world benefit from it; who does not seek his own harm, but makes the whole world free from his harm..."

"There may be a virtuous king who governs the country by laying down the principles and disciplines, and revitalizes the people through political education... He is light on corvee and pays little in taxes, and he cultivates the land well, and is well-organized in government and people, so that he can bring peace to the world..."

"Today there is a man called Zhao Ji, who takes all the benefits of the world to himself and all the harms of the world to the people. Is this a human ruler? The ancient Jie and Zhou were nothing more than this... expelling the virtuous and erecting party monuments; appointing treacherous and evil people to create flowers and stones... Peel off the bones and absorb the marrow, disperse the world, and serve one person's lust. The palaces in Bianliang are majestic, and the wood and stone can be ennobled. The people's livelihood in the world is in ruins, and the common people are reduced to dogs and horses... The people work all day long, and they cannot have enough to eat in one day; Diligence never warms up overnight... Therefore, the world is exhausted, people are resentful, China is boiling, and the world is hanging upside down. First there is the worry of Fang La, and then there is the trouble of Songjiang. The rich are uneasy about their lives, and the poor are unlucky. …”

"Mencius said, the people are the most valuable, the country is the second most important, and the king is the least important. I live on the people's salary and work hard all day long. I cannot bear the suffering of the people in water and fire, and the people suffer from hunger and cold. Now I carry a three-foot sword, lead a million soldiers, and raise the flag of righteousness. To bring peace to the world, I vowed to kill the independent men to bring peace to the country, and to wipe out the traitors and sycophants to soothe the living beings... Proclamation will be made throughout the sea, and the envoys will hear about it."

It was not until a few days later that Song Huizong saw this memorandum, because none of his ministers dared to use it to offend the emperor.

Song Huizong tore the memorandum into pieces. He was shaking with anger and said angrily: "Traitor, traitor, how can this be unreasonable! Rebel... bring back all the Western Army and wipe out those two traitors quickly!"

Wang Fu knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty, the Western Army cannot be withdrawn entirely, otherwise the situation in Hebei will be difficult to deal with. We can only call back 20,000 to 30,000 Western Army, and then order local recruitment of troops. With the Western Army as the main force and the Xiang Army as the supplement, we can still destroy it. The red thief."

"Then bring back 30,000 Western troops and send the order immediately. I can't wait even a moment!" Song Huizong roared.

(Lao Wang’s ancient writing is not good. I have been thinking for a long time and can only write this kind of thing. Let’s just make do with it. There is no update today. I can’t hold it anymore. I’ll talk about it tomorrow.)