Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 505: Discussing State Affairs on a Painting Boat

The fifteenth day of the first month.

Liu Dalangjun, the most popular official in Jiankang City, finally wrote his first memorial.

However, it was not a document from a foreign general requesting submission when he first came to the court, nor was it a congratulatory letter for the New Year, let alone a single word of praise.

The whole article is written in plain language and has only one central idea.

Please execute the former Huaixi commander Wang Quan!
The charges are ready-made.

Losing a teacher and humiliating the country!

It was because of Wang Quan’s cowardice that the war in Lianghuai deteriorated and resulted in the deaths of countless soldiers and civilians.

If we don't kill this man, it will be hard to comfort the soldiers and civilians who died in Lianghuai. If we don't kill this man, it will be hard to quell the anger of the people. If we don't kill this man, the laws of the country will no longer be in force. If we don't kill this man, it will not be enough to serve as a warning to the past and a warning to the future!

Generally speaking, if Wang Quan was not killed, the State of Song would be on the verge of collapse.

This memorial, written by Li Tong, the former prime minister of the Jin Dynasty, and translated into plain language by Liu Huai, caused a great sensation as soon as it was released.

Because there were still many people who had fled from Lianghuai near Jiankang. Most of them only knew that they were displaced by the Jin Kingdom's invasion from the south, but they had never thought that there was such a group of people, and they were immediately very angry.

Of course, this is just the initial spread among the people.

For the officials in the Song Dynasty, this memorial was enough to arouse their vigilance.

If yesterday's Jin'an Festival kicked off a new round of political struggle, then Liu Huai's statement on behalf of the Shandong righteous army to demand Wang Quan's life was the first shot fired in this round of political struggle.

Political struggles are always like this. It is very rare to call for the killing of the leaders of political forces from the very beginning, and it is basically impossible to succeed.

If one really wanted to carry out a political decapitation operation, the most reliable method would be the Jin Dynasty's method, which was to gather a group of strong men and rush into the home of the political opponent and hack him to death with their swords.

In addition, most political struggles start with a piece of scrap information, which is then revealed layer by layer and expanded layer by layer, until the target person is involved.

Of course, the political forces that are attacked or even affected will not surrender, but will also escalate the situation. In the end, the political struggle will get out of control, and the consequences may even paralyze a government.

For example, now, Zhao Gou and Chen Kangbo, the emperor and the prime minister, have not responded yet, but the first person to speak out and refute is Ye Yiwen, the head of the Privy Council.

I don't know whether to say that Lord Ye has high or low political sensitivity. This opening move, coupled with Liu Huai's political spectrum, will definitely result in him wanting to hold the former prime minister Tang Situi responsible.

Who made Tang Situi the prime minister of the Song Dynasty before Wanyan Liang's invasion of the south?
However, it is very likely that Ye Yiwen, as the former governor of Jianghuai military, was worried that this matter would eventually be traced back to him, so he couldn't wait to start shifting the blame.

This made the peace-loving group of people laugh at it.

As the targeted party, Tang Situi, as a confidant of both Qin Hui and Zhao Gou, naturally had some ability. He did not take any action at all, but directly sent the censor to write a letter, following the impeachment of the Jin'an Festival yesterday, to hold Liu Si responsible for the defeat in Chuzhou.

The saying goes, you fight yours and I fight mine.

The ruthlessness of the political veteran was fully revealed at this time. Tang Shitui did not even try to counter the opponent's moves, but directly opened up a new battlefield.

If you really want to kill Wang Quan, kill Liu Si as well!

Both of them were defeated, not only the eldest brother but also the second brother.

You can also trace it further up.

Tang Situi was not a good judge of character. Could it be that Liu Si's general, his uncle Liu Qi, was so clean? Although Liu Qi was already dead, couldn't he be stripped of his meritorious service and title?

If Liu Huai continues to fight to the end and finally kills Liu Si and discredits Liu Qi, then we will have to see who in the two Huai regions will still have a good impression of Shandong.

In the first round of confrontation in the morning, it seemed that Tang Situi won and Liu Huai was slightly defeated.

However, by the afternoon, the situation had reversed.

Because Ye Yiwen didn't know whether he was really scared or a certain staff officer named Lu made a military move, this fool went to the palace in person and wailed in front of Zhao Gou, wanting to retire.

Ye Yiwen's words were clear: yesterday, Jin Anjie had impeached him, today Liu Huai was trying to hold Wang Quan accountable, and Tang Situi was trying to hold Liu Si and Liu Qi accountable. Ultimately, all of this responsibility would fall on Ye Yiwen.

He really couldn't bear this huge blame, and he didn't want to be the first person to drown in the political vortex. Therefore, Ye Yiwen wanted to retire directly.

This made both Zhao Gou and Chen Kangbo feel embarrassed and ashamed.

Ye Yiwen was old enough to retire, but the key point was that he, as the Privy Councilor, had returned triumphantly after having achieved the merit of capturing the Jin lord Wanyan Liang alive.

Now he is forced to end his political career without even receiving any reward. How will the history books view the emperor and the prime ministers in the future?
The already deceased Liu Qi was held accountable, and Ye Yiwen, who had made remarkable contributions, was deposed.

This is not the right way to kill a donkey!

Now it's confirmed. The guy Jin Anjie came here yesterday to work for Tang Shitui, with the purpose of getting rid of Ye Yiwen.

In the evening, when the Lantern Festival began, an imperial edict was sent from the palace to Tang Shitui's residence, which directly reprimanded him and asked him to pay attention to the people's livelihood. Since he wanted to advocate peace, he should not interfere in the war anymore.

"These words are not just the tone of the palace. It is more like an edict written jointly by the emperor and Minister Chen. I heard that those precious antique vases left by Tang Liushou were all destroyed." The Qinhuai River was crowded with tourists and brightly lit. Jiankang City did not have a curfew on the Lantern Festival. The emperor would go out of the palace and have fun with the people.

Although the war has just ended, life still needs to go on. If we use the reason of a great victory on the battlefield as an excuse, we can indeed celebrate it in a big way.

Zhao Gou even used the imperial treasury to purchase a large number of fireworks and lanterns, which were spread on both sides of Zhuque Street for the gentry and common people to enjoy.

After attending banquets in the palace in the evening, many important officials came to the pleasure boats on the Qinhuai River to drink and have fun. Many unknown news spread during the clinking of glasses.

The entertainment industry on the Qinhuai River has a long history. It has been prosperous at least since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, because the river channel became narrower, the Qinhuai River lost its status as a military stronghold, and the entertainment industry on it became more prosperous.

To be more specific, it means a larger pleasure boat and more variety.

On the Lantern Festival, many brothels' pleasure boats were simply booked by various guilds and lined up side by side to form a small piece of land. Literary men and women would meet friends through literature and record today's event with their writings and poems.

This kind of banquet similar to poetry gatherings was very common during the Song Dynasty, but it was far from the competition for the world's most talented person as described in third-rate novels, because the imperial court had its own system for selecting officials. It was impossible to be promoted just because you wrote a good poem or a good article on a pleasure boat.

Poetry gatherings were more of a way to build relationships and gain connections. Although flattery from the literati was not as effective as in the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties in directly getting people appointed to official positions, it could still make one famous, and at least make one familiar with those high-ranking officials.

Among the high-ranking officials feasting in the largest pleasure boat today, the leader was Yu Yunwen and Chen Junqing, another key figure of the pro-war faction.

The accompanying officials were somewhat interested in the poetry gathering in the pleasure boat, but when it came to Yu Yunwen and Chen Junqing, they were not very concerned about poetry and just talked in low voices about the current situation.

After hearing what Yu Yunwen said, Chen Junqing smiled bitterly a few times, then shook his head and said, "This matter is not over yet. Neither General Liu nor Governor Tang are the kind of people who will let it go.

In my opinion, if Liu Dutong were in charge of the Privy Council, he would definitely use the old incident of Zhao Ding and Prime Minister Zhao to force the execution of Tang Liushou.

If Tang stayed and resumed his position as prime minister, he would certainly sell out Shandong in order to negotiate peace with the Jin Kingdom."

Yu Yunwen twirled his beard and said something nonsense: "So, we absolutely cannot let that fellow Tang Situi return to the position of prime minister!"

Chen Junqing smiled bitterly again: "This is not something that my generation can decide."

He just felt exhausted both physically and mentally.

Having just survived a devastating war, they now had to engage in political struggles. Even the strongest person would find it difficult to hold on.

As the Minister of War, Chen Junqing still had some connections in the court. After a pause, he whispered to Yu Yunwen, "Prime Minister Yu, I heard that the court intends to send me to Huaidong to clean up the military farms. Is there anything you want to teach me?"

Yu Yunwen raised his glass and shook his head in response, "Since ancient times, it has been extremely difficult to take over land. As the saying goes, people die for money, and birds die for food. It is not impossible for civil unrest to occur at that time."

Seeing Chen Junqing's thoughtful expression, Yu Yunwen continued, "However, now is the best opportunity. Since Lianghuai has been ravaged, countless families have been destroyed. The most urgent task is to distribute the land to the people. We must not delay the spring plowing."

Now Chen Junqing finally understood.

Yu Yunwen meant that he should take advantage of the heavy losses suffered by the gentry and powerful people in Lianghuai to quickly measure the land, take back the land that the powerful people had hidden and annexed, register it, and distribute it to the self-cultivating farmers so that they could cultivate it.

We must not let the landlords in Jiangnan react and start a new round of mergers.

However, Chen Junqing still shook his head: "Prime Minister Yu, it is difficult for me to accomplish such a great task alone. Those officials and subordinates will not be so obedient."

What a joke! To clear out the vast holdings of land in Lianghuai, from ancient times to the present, has it always required a resolute will from the emperor down, from the officials themselves? Has it always involved bloodshed and rivers of blood? What makes you, Yu Yun, think that Chen Junqing and a group of officials who haven't formed a clique can pull this off?

Chen Junqing considered himself to be of high moral character, but he also knew that when the time came, the ones who would initiate large-scale mergers might be the officials working under his command. Did he really think they were not landlords?
Yu Yunwen narrowed his eyes and said with a half-smile, "Lianghuai is still not stable. I will submit a memorial tomorrow. There are still many Jin soldiers scattered in Lianghuai. We need troops to eliminate them. When the time comes, someone will naturally cooperate with Minister Chen."

As he spoke, Yu Yunwen held the cup and stared into Chen Junqing's eyes.

If things have come to this point and Chen Junqing still makes excuses, it will be difficult for us to call each other comrades in the future.

Chen Junqing also opened his eyes wide.

The four words "raising the enemy to protect oneself" suddenly rose to the surface.

Then it seemed unlikely.

To keep the enemy alive is to keep the enemy alive, who are controllable. I have never heard of keeping the army alive to keep the army alive.

If Yu Yunwen had the ability to command the Jin army, wouldn’t it be better for him to just proclaim himself emperor?
As for impersonation, how could the customs and even accents of the Jin army be so easy to imitate?

Therefore, Chen Junqing speculated that at that time there would be troops under the banner of suppressing the Jin army to cooperate with him in measuring the land.

"In your opinion, Lord Yu, which group of troops should be sent to escort me to various places?" Thinking of this, Chen Junqing no longer hesitated and asked in a deep voice.

The county magistrate is not as good as the current manager. Although Chen Junqing is the Minister of War, he doesn't know as much about the specific situation as Yu Yunwen, who commanded the battle on the front line.

Yu Yunwen was unequivocal when he saw this: "Zhang Rong, the commander-in-chief of the Dongping Army, died in the cause of state. His son Zhang Baiyu followed General Liu Huai in the battles and made several achievements, including beheading generals and capturing flags. He can be appointed the acting commander-in-chief of the Dongping Army and can protect Minister Chen."

Chen Junqing nodded immediately: "Okay! I will submit a memorial tomorrow."

As soon as the words fell, the two men who had completed a round of political transactions smiled at each other. Just as they were about to raise their glasses, they heard a commotion in the center of the pleasure boat and could not help but look at each other in surprise.

(End of this chapter)