Chapter 639: Gloating over Others' Misfortunes

【The governance of Sichuan during the Song Dynasty was never stable.

The most typical example is the Wang Xiaobo Uprising, which took place here. At that time, the Northern Song Dynasty had only been established for 33 years, and the problem was obvious.

But if we continue to trace it back, this problem must be traced to Zhao Da, after all, it is well known that Wang Quanbin massacred the people of Shu after destroying Shu.

Some people call it self-pollution, and some people say it is a legacy of the Five Dynasties, but in any case, it is a fact that a large number of Sichuan people died indirectly at his hands.

As for Zhao Da's later pursuit of Wang Quanbin, whether it was because of the civil strife caused by the massacre of Shu, or because Wang Quanbin buried and killed surrendered soldiers in order to conceal the truth, or was investigating the incident of the massacre of Shu itself, no one can tell clearly.

But in short, Wang Quanbin was eventually pardoned by Zhao Da and appointed as the governor of Wuning Army to die a good death.

Song Taizu did get a little reputation for treating old ministers well, but for the people of Shu, it is probably not a bit of pardon.

In addition, Zhao Da was also famous for his "leniency". For example, his well-known brother-in-law Wang Jixun led troops to plunder decent women in his early years. When Zhao Da found out, he killed all the soldiers, but the main culprit was not guilty.

Wang Jixun was quite "righteous". Later, he chased Zhao Da to redress the injustice of the soldiers who were beheaded, which made Zhao Da impatient and took away his military power, making him "depressed". He killed servants for fun at home. Later, these servants stopped at the palace gate to complain, which made Zhao Da embarrassed, so he decided to exile him to Dengzhou. However, this brother-in-law was caught up by the imperial envoy just after he was exiled from the capital, and was sent to Luoyang to be a general instead.

When he arrived in Luoyang, I can only say that he was a good guy. He would rob decent women for no reason. If he was not satisfied, he would "kill and eat them". He even took them to Changshou Temple to be eaten by a monk named Guanghui. It can be said that he was extremely cruel. He lived freely for eleven years. He was really a living devil.

No one knows whether Zhao Da knew the details. The records at that time only said that the people "suffered but dared not tell" until Zhao Er came to power and was caught and killed, which was considered a good thing for the people of Luoyang.

Of course, this is a far-fetched topic. In short, Zhao Da's period favored many arrogant soldiers and generals. Wang Jixun and Wang Quanbin were just more prominent examples.

The most fundamental reason is that under the national policy of "strong trunk and weak branches", there are many contradictions between the trunk and branches, and Sichuan, which is remote, rich, and easy to defend and difficult to attack, has become the most typical representative.

After Wu Xi rebelled against Shu, although the Southern Song Dynasty did not give up Sichuan, its suspicion of him became more and more serious. At that time, knowledgeable people all offered suggestions to strengthen the defense of Shukou to protect Sichuan, but the central government of the Southern Song Dynasty turned a deaf ear to it.

Before and after the Duanping invasion of Luoyang, the commanders of the Jinghu and Jingxiang war zones were either Lizong's confidants or the old friends of the powerful prime ministers, and military funds were mostly used for this. The Sichuan-Shaanxi war zone was broken from beginning to end. Finally, after the death of Cao Youwen and other brave generals born by stepmothers, there was no obstacle for Mongolia to enter Sichuan.

It was not until the first phase of the Song-Mongol War was temporarily ended in 1241 that the Southern Song court was finally able to pay attention to the problem of Sichuan's defense erosion.

At that time, the famous general Meng Gong, who had been the fire captain in the Jinghu Xiangyang area for six years, intended to sort out Sichuan.

Meng Gong participated in the first phase of the Song-Mongol War and performed brilliantly. First, he led his troops to fight fiercely against Mongolia to recapture Xiangyang and make the Jinghu defense line complete. Then he spent a lot of effort to reorganize the Jinghu Lianghuai defense line. He generally adopted the defense strategy of saving the fire wherever it started, and arranged multiple layers of overlapping depth defense in a small area, thus building a fairly solid triple defense line for the Southern Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Meng Gong was completely unable to get away, and Lizong finally chose Yu Jie, who was outstanding in the Jianghuai war, as the commander of Shu.

Yu Jie's defense was similar to Meng Gong's. He built many forts to control the river passes and built a mountain city defense system with deep and tiered defense characteristics, firmly guarding the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Meng Gong died with regret in 1246 after building the three-line defense line. This defense system was later used for nearly 30 years to extend the life of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Yu Jie was successful in governing Shu and won the hearts of the people, but he was also suspected of this. He died suddenly in 1253, and his family was confiscated and his position was removed. The mountain city system he spent ten years to build also became the "God's Whip Breaking Place" of Mongolia. 】

You can hear a pin drop in the Bianliang Hall.

The "puff" laughter in the silence was particularly clear.

Zhao Pu turned his head and saw only Master Kong Jiong lying on the ground, working hard as if searching for the scattered Buddhist beads.

Turning back to look at the emperor, as expected... nothing was seen.

The emperor's dark face was completely hidden in the shadows and his expression could not be seen clearly, but the aura of keeping strangers away from him showed that he was always in a bad mood.

"I have pardoned Wang Quanbin again?"

His voice was cold, and there was still a lot of confusion in it.

Before Zhao Pu could speak, Zhao Kuangyi could not wait to stand up and said:

"Although this matter has not happened yet, why is it difficult to guess?"

"Brother, before you died..."

Feeling the air in the hall suddenly cold, Master Kong Jiong twisted his neck, then clasped his hands together and said:

"Before the emperor died, he was still planning to destroy the Northern Han. Since it was a northern expedition, he should win over the hearts of the people. Pardoning Wang Quanbin and giving him a nominal position will let everyone know that the emperor is magnanimous and willing to reward, which is a good move for the war."

"Why not?"

I don't know if it was an illusion, Zhao Pu seemed to hear some excitement from the four words "why not".

As for Wang Jixun… Zhao Pu knew more about this.

In the fifth year of Xiande, the emperor's first wife, He, passed away. In the same year, he was promoted to the position of the chief inspector of the imperial court, so he married Wang as his successor.

Wang was filial to Empress Dowager Du and raised the princes and princesses. She usually recited Buddhist scriptures and did not like luxury. She was good at playing the zither and the drums and accompanied meals. She was very popular with the emperor. However, she died of illness at the age of 22 three years after she was crowned as the queen. The emperor often felt that he owed her a lot.

Therefore, he was lenient to Queen Wang's brother. For example, the one who led the army to plunder women should be executed according to the law, but he was pardoned in the end.

As for what happened later... Zhao Pu didn't know whether His Majesty knew it, but he probably didn't know it very well. After all, cannibalism was really a horrifying thing.

But now that things have come to this, he should make a decision.

Sure enough, Zhao Pu saw the emperor in the shadows turning his face towards him:

"Immediately send someone to lead the imperial guards to investigate the truth of what Wang Jixun did in Luoyang. If it is true, write down his crimes and display them on the streets of Luoyang, and behead him. There is no need to report to me many times."

"Wang Quanbin... Considering his physical illness, he will be recalled to the capital for the time being."

Zhao Pu bowed and accepted the order.

After a moment of hesitation, Emperor Zhao Song turned his head to look at this troublesome brother, and Master Kong Jiong immediately stepped back vigilantly.

But of course he didn't think he could escape anywhere. Once the palace door opened, most of the outside would be full of imperial guards. But he couldn't admit defeat at this moment:

"I can't participate in the war, I just hope the emperor will be kind..."

Waving his hand to interrupt his brother's muttering, Zhao Kuangyin said impatiently:

"I don't have the time to beat you now. You will go and get a hundred military sticks tomorrow. It's a crime against me."

"If you don't go after the time, I will bring the military sticks to your door in person!"

"Oh, by the way, you are not allowed to break the sticks for this duty."

The gloating expression disappeared, and Master Kong Jiong's face turned pale.