Chapter 544: Do You Care?

[When Yue Fei surrendered to the army for the second time, the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty in the court were as helpless as ever.

Song Huizong and others, who relied on "redemption" to obtain Youzhou and other areas, instantly forgot the two tragic failures of conquering Liao to capture Yan, and looked at Zixiong as if he was really a holy king alive.

Tong Guan, who was in charge of the military, was ordered to patrol Taiyuan Prefecture, planning to take back Yunzhong, and even wanted to welcome Emperor Tianzuo of Liao Kingdom as a bargaining chip. He did not care that the people of Hebei had already complained about being knocked to the bone and sucked out the marrow.

In the same year, Ma Kuo, a famous diplomat in the late Northern Song Dynasty, a participant and founder of the Maritime Alliance, and the legendary anti-Jin rebel general, warned the Song court that the Jin Kingdom was probably preparing to go south to invade the Song Dynasty.

Not surprisingly, this suggestion was not taken seriously by anyone. It was not until June 1125 that news came back from Hedong and Hebei in the Northern Song Dynasty that the Jin army had assembled on a large scale in Yunzhong, Lingqiu, Feihu and other places. He was still dreaming of going to China, and it was not until November that he thought of sending Ma Kuo to deposit money for the envoy to find out whether the enemy country had any intention of invading the south.

In fact, it was too late to say anything at this time. After the famous Jin general Wanyan Zonghan sent Ma Kuo away, he officially launched an army from the east and west to destroy the Song Dynasty.

Qinzong did not comment on this, but asked Li Gang to put him away first on the grounds of security. After Li Gang left, he immediately agreed to these conditions.

Not long after Zhao Gou stepped forward and volunteered to deposit gold as pledge, reinforcements totaling more than 200,000 from all over the country also arrived near Kaifeng. More than 60,000 Jin troops had already obtained the gold and silver that Song Ting had taken out of Kaifeng city, as well as border defenses. After three towns, they retreated leisurely.

But think about the grand scene of celebrating the festival that he saw when he entered Bianliang incognito yesterday, and the people who helped him with righteousness and thought of Hebei.

“The original intention of the reform was to eliminate old problems for the country, but as a result, party strife has become more prevalent, and those who cling to power are all members of the party and those who oppose dissidents.”

Finally he heard the king and old friend's suppressed voice:

“It’s so difficult for a person who is pragmatic and not vain to be an official!”

However, Qinzong was also someone who knew how to shirk responsibility. He said, Li Gang, since you are so determined to fight against the Jin Dynasty, who else would you be left behind in Tokyo?

After the failure of the night attack, Qinzong gave in again at the speed of light and sent angels to three towns in Hebei to announce the cession as promised. The Jin army, which had already obtained a lot of gold and silver, also chose to temporarily retreat after seeing this.

But even so, it still failed to stop Qin Zong and his ministers from sending envoys to negotiate with the Jin army to cede territory and seek peace.

Zhao Kuangyin still found it difficult to feel at ease and think that the matter had nothing to do with him.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Pu also agreed:

But in private, Qinzong demonstrated his indecisiveness and weakness. He tried to escape Bianliang twice under the advice of his ministers and ministers, forcing Li Gang, who stayed behind, to worry about defense while pursuing the emperor.

The lone army of the Jin Kingdom completely tore apart the fig leaf of the upper echelons of the Northern Song Dynasty: with a fortified city to rely on and the ability to wait for King Qin's army, Huizong was directly frightened and fainted. After being awakened by the servants with potions, he said that he did not want to be the emperor and directly He asked for paper and pen to write the imperial edict, and the indecisive Qinzong ascended the throne and changed his reign name to Jingkang.

"The virtuous are promoted without talent, the demoted are not based on political achievements, sycophants are rampant, the house is full of flatterers, and there are many traitors. Even if there are people with an iron spine, it is difficult to relax their ambitions and save the country from danger."

Zhao Pu also agreed with this. After all, it seems that the Jin Kingdom's strategy may not be very clever, and the soldiers and horses may not be very powerful. However, he encountered a group of generals with their hands tied, and a group of people who wanted to abandon the capital and flee south when something happened. Emperor Zaifu, who ceded territory and betrayed the country to maintain peace, made the Kingdom of Jin appear particularly powerful.

But this was extremely uncomfortable for Zhao Kuangyin.

These words made Zhao Kuangyin silent, but he finally nodded.

Sometimes Zhao Pu's suggestions were very straightforward, but as later generations said, they were all words of sincerity and loyalty, so that sometimes they didn't sound very good, but if you think about the group of Confucian scholars who grabbed his sleeves and sprayed spit in his face, Well...

Immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister who recovered at the speed of light spoke without hesitation:

"Therefore, your majesty should have people keep a close eye on him so that nothing like the shadow of candles and the sound of axes can happen."

The song echoed in the hall, and the despicable and absurd meaning in it was unmistakable. And perhaps because of the thousands of years apart in later generations, it was recited with a little sense of appreciation.

After the news came that the Jin army had crossed the Yellow River, the then Prime Minister unsurprisingly suggested abandoning Kyoto and retreating to Xiangyang. If Taichang Shaoqing Li Gang had not been an iron-backed man who spat on Qinzong's face and prevented the Jin Dynasty from escaping south, the Jin Dynasty would have I am afraid that the army will attack Bianliang City without a fight.

At the same time, the Northern Song Dynasty court, which had just overcome the crisis, did not care about the national crisis at all. The scholar-bureaucrats followed the tradition and showed the characteristics of civil war between insiders and outsiders:

Some people went to the court to liquidate the responsibilities of Cai Jing and other important ministers in Huizong's dynasty, and denounced them as the six thieves; some wrote a special book saying that Wang Anshi's new laws and new learning were the root of the country's crisis; some said that it was unlucky to change the name of the angel; and some made bitter statements to Severely punish the disciples of the Imperial Academy who prevented Qinzong from escaping Bianliang.

Moreover, Jin Jun’s conditions are also very “sincere”:

Five million taels of gold, fifty million taels of silver, ten thousand cattle and horses, and one million pieces of silk and satin. He respected the Jin Emperor as his uncle, cut off the three towns of Taiyuan, Zhongshan, and Hejian, and sent the prime minister and prince to the Jin army as pledges.

Zhao Pu could see the official's hands clenched tightly behind his back, and he looked extremely uneasy inside.

Qinzong was not unyielding. The 200,000 King Qin's army made Qinzong quickly get excited and made a plan with Yao Pingzhong to attack the Jin camp at night. However, the Jin army had already obtained the plan three days before the night attack. The detailed steps are very interesting.

Although he knew from the bottom of his heart that the third thief Qinhui Gao was not his heir, he kept telling himself not to blame himself for the crime.

He didn't care about Taiyuan, but he was in charge of Taixue; he didn't care about Fangqiu, but he was in charge of Chunqiu; he didn't care about Cannon Stone, but he was in charge of Anshi; he didn't care about Su Wang, but he was in charge of Shu Wang;

He didn't care about Yanshan, but he was in charge of Nieshan; he didn't care about Dongjing, but he was in charge of Cai Jing; he didn't care about the boundary of Hebei, but he was in charge of Juren Mianjie; he didn't care about Hedong, but he was in charge of Chendong; he didn't care about the second prince, but he was in charge of Li Taizi. 】

As long as the above conditions are met, the Jin army will withdraw immediately.

The people of Kaifeng, who had just been "robbed legally" by the emperor and the prime ministers, showed their optimistic spirit like black humor and made up a jingle to reflect the current situation:

Among them, the Western Route Army directly faced Taiyuan City. The Jin Army was helpless against the strong city in the absence of siege means and fell into a stalemate.

Seeing this, the Eastern Route Army chose a way of fighting that was unexpected by everyone. It bypassed the prefectures and counties of Hebei and attacked Bianliang directly. In less than a month, the troops were at the gates of the city.

Li Gang kowtowed and firmly opposed it, saying that he only needed to send a man who was good at speaking and eloquent to pretend to be friendly with the Jin army, and as long as he could delay for three or five days, the Qinwang army would arrive and defeat the bandits.

As for Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Kuangyin was already thinking that after destroying the Southern Tang, he should take advantage of the situation to remove his title of King of Jin.

However, it was unnecessary to follow the experience of Zhao Guangmei in the history books of later generations who was demoted to the desolate land of Sichuan and Shu, and he would be worried about that.

But then an idea came to Zhao Kuangyin's mind. This good brother was idle anyway, why not study Buddhism in depth?