I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 109 You came at the right time

Zhao Zicheng wasn't one to spoil the mood; since Murong Yan was there, he wouldn't keep talking to her about military affairs and war preparations.

So after briefly showing off his new toys that he had recently tinkered with, Zhao Zicheng instructed his maids to prepare a welcoming banquet and tidy up his living quarters.

The two hadn't seen each other for months and were already missing each other dearly. They also knew that they had already agreed on their engagement and completed the six rites of marriage, including betrothal, name inquiry, and auspicious date selection. The matter was now a done deal.

Murong Yan couldn't help but feel a little shy. If she hadn't been able to pretend to be a man and move around outside, she probably wouldn't have had the face to come and scout the place in advance.

Now all that's left is for the Zhao family to formally give the betrothal gifts and calculate an auspicious date before the marriage can take place—including the earlier "asking the name" ceremony, which involves matching the birth dates and times of both the man and woman to see if they are auspicious and if there are any clashes or conflicts. The Zhao family was initially worried that if the Murong family secretly married off the younger sister but openly used the older sister's birth date and time for the compatibility analysis, it might lead to inaccurate calculations.

However, it was later discovered that because the Murong sisters were twins born at less than an hour apart, their birth charts were exactly the same, so there was no issue of "changing the person leading to miscalculation".

Zhao Zicheng led Murong Yan into the inner hall, dismissed the maids, and then poured wine for Murong Yan himself while asking in a low voice, "I wonder how your mother has made the arrangements... Will my dear sister marry into the family this time under your older sister's identity?"

Murong Yan was a free-spirited woman of the martial world, and at this moment, she no longer hid anything and said frankly, "That's what Mother meant. She also said that since Brother won't be in Hangzhou for long and is going to expand his business, he will definitely need relatives to help him in the future."

Therefore, the slave's false identity as a man can also be used in the future. When he needs to show his face in public, he can continue to dress as a man. As long as he doesn't get too close to outsiders, he won't be recognized.

After my brother is transferred away from Hangzhou, all the properties here can be placed under the name of 'Young Master Murong.' In reality, I'm already my brother's person."

As Murong Yan spoke, she bit her lip, no longer being coy, and sat down next to Zhao Zicheng. She took off her veil and loosened her hair crown, gently leaning on his shoulder, letting her long hair fall down into Zhao Zicheng's arms.

Then she continued in a soft voice, "Mother also said that after I come here this time, I don't need to go back. After the auspicious day is set, my family will make a big fuss and first prepare a house in Hangzhou. Then we will use a boat to transport my sister to Hangzhou and settle her in the Murong family's house. On the auspicious day, my brother will personally go to pick her up."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zicheng was startled and even felt a little embarrassed: "My dear sister, you mean..."

Murong Yan knew exactly what he was thinking. Finally, she shyly buried her head in his chest and scratched his chest: "Mother said that you are a man of your word. You have been promoted so quickly and are a descendant of the imperial family. You are still willing to abide by the gentleman's agreement made back then and fulfill the marriage contract with our Murong family. Our Murong family naturally cannot be stingy."

Therefore, since I married my husband in my sister's name, I cannot harm her, and I no longer need to worry about my identity. When either of us sisters needs to handle family affairs, we will appear as men; when staying in the inner quarters, we will appear as women. For the next few years, this will be the arrangement; we'll deal with the future later.”

Zhao Zicheng's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and he swallowed without making a sound: "In that case, it would be unfair to my younger sister... and also make things difficult for your older sister."

Murong Yan gave him a shy glare: "What's there to be reluctant about? My elder sister has long been in love with you, my husband! Didn't you realize that, my husband? That's truly heartbreaking."

Seeing that she spoke frankly and straightforwardly, Zhao Zicheng quickly stopped being coy and said seriously, "Who is without feelings? How could I not have noticed at all? I just wasn't sure. Since you and your sister are willing to entrust yourselves to me, I will certainly not let you down. I will take good care of you in every way for the rest of my life."

Zhao Zicheng spoke frankly and stopped being polite, pulling Murong Yan into his arms tightly. He felt her soft, warm, and fragrant body soothing his soul.

Murong Yan's pretty face turned red, her body went limp, and she remained stunned for a while before gradually coming back to her senses: "Husband, I've known you for two years now, and you never seemed to care for me like that before! You only became so attentive when you heard that my sister was coming too! Husband, you really do prefer women who are well-educated and reasonable!"

No wonder. I'm just a rough, clumsy girl who often gets my husband into trouble. How can I compare to my sister, who is so careful, gentle, and thoughtful before acting?

"..."

"As I predicted!"

"I didn't mean it that way! You weren't causing trouble, you were just being chivalrous," Zhao Zicheng said evasively, quickly changing the subject.
“During the Battle of Wuxing, Fang La’s general Deng Yuanjue tried to ambush me. If I hadn’t practiced using his own methods against him over the past year, I would probably have died on the spot. Later, in the bloody battles of Haining and Qingheyan, I was on the verge of death several times. All I could think about was, ‘If I die here, wouldn’t my sister be heartbroken?’ How could I dare to take the risk again?”

Murong Yan then remembered that Zhao Zicheng had gone through a lot of danger in the past few months. Her attention was immediately drawn to him, and she couldn't help but feel a little scared as she imagined it. She no longer cared about those little things from earlier.

Murong Yan, who had always been fond of martial arts, couldn't help but ask Zhao Zicheng about his combat experiences and the various dangers he had encountered in recent days.

Zhao Zicheng simplified the story, focusing on the dramatic details, and quickly calmed the little girl down.

……

Nothing was said that night. The next morning, Zhao Zicheng instructed his trusted confidants to hand over the assets to the Murong family.

The Murong family symbolically contributed a sum of money to purchase hundreds of hectares of farmland and estates in the area from Yunqi Mountain to Jiuxi. This would prevent Zhao Zicheng from being accused of embezzling and misappropriating war spoils during his tenure as prefect.

With the year-end fast approaching, Zhao Zicheng had already arranged all his government affairs and farming work, so there was nothing to worry about. He would take advantage of the last few days before the new year to complete the procedures for paying taxes and setting the wedding date. The taxes due would be sent to the new Murong Manor, a simple matter of transferring money from one pocket to another, and then an auspicious day would be chosen.

Throughout the entire process, Murong Yan acted as the younger brother-in-law, and publicly stated that she was busy with preparations for her sister's marriage.

While in Hangzhou, Murong Yan also needed someone to take care of her and make arrangements. It was impossible to hide her true identity as a woman from everyone. Zhao Zicheng selected several trusted and discreet maids from his newly recruited servants and sent them to care for Murong Yan. Apart from these maids who could serve her personally, no one else knew Murong Yan's true identity.

After finishing all this, it was New Year's Eve in the blink of an eye. Since there were no matters to attend to at Murong Manor for the time being, Zhao Zicheng suggested that they spend the New Year at his own official residence and villa, and he would take Murong Yan to visit the former site of the Wuyue Kingdom's palace.

Murong Yan did not refuse and went without saying a word. The two practiced martial arts together every day, pondering and exchanging ideas, without going into details.

The first month of the lunar calendar passed uneventfully in the blink of an eye, and soon the auspicious day that had been set in advance arrived.

The Murong family sent Murong Yan's older sister, Murong Qiu, to Hangzhou in advance and settled her in Murong Manor. On the auspicious day, Zhao Zicheng personally went to Murong Manor to welcome her back to his private residence, which was located near the former site of the Wuyue Kingdom Palace.

Civil and military officials from within Hangzhou also came to observe the ceremony and offer their congratulations.

Zhao Zicheng entertained the guests one by one until he was exhausted, but finally saw them off and the good deed was accomplished.

……

After marriage, it's inevitable to spend some time indulging in tender moments.

A month or two passed in the blink of an eye, and the civil affairs and military matters that Zhao Zicheng had arranged were all progressing in an orderly manner.

Zhao Zi claimed that he did not concern himself with government affairs every day, and that it did not cause him any trouble.

In the Liangzhe region, the work of suppressing the remnants of Fang La's rebellion was finally brought to a complete end.

Fang La himself didn't even make it to the end of the year; he was ultimately killed by Han Shizhong in the mountainous region of Muzhou at the end of the twelfth lunar month. His direct followers were also gradually eliminated in the first month of the third year of the Xuanhe era.

However, the journey to Lu Shinang in Taizhou and Chen Shisi in Wenzhou, which were further away, was extremely arduous due to the rugged mountains and long distances in southern Zhejiang. After Wang Bing and Yang Zhi conquered the counties along the Lanxi River by land, their attempt to move to Linhai and Wenzhou was also very difficult.

In the dead of winter, the mountainous areas are covered in snow, and the mountain roads are almost impassable.

Finally, it was Zhao Zicheng who suggested that they not be fixated on the distance shown on the map, but instead take the longer sea route instead of the shorter one. This helped Wang Bing and Yang Zhi plug their last weakness. By the end of February, they had successfully eliminated all the remaining bandit leaders in Taizhou and Wenzhou, and the heads of Lü Shinang and Chen Shisi were delivered to Tong Guan.

During this process, Zhao Zicheng also took the opportunity to lay another trap: taking advantage of the fact that Wang Bing and other newly arrived generals from the north were unfamiliar with the geography of Jiangnan and that the initial advance of the campaign was slow, he submitted a memorial to the emperor, hoping that the court could set up a small-scale naval force in Hangzhou Bay to patrol the coastal mountainous areas of Zhejiang and Fujian and prevent the recurrence of banditry.

Because southern Zhejiang and central Fujian have always been strategically important areas, the imperial court had not anticipated that there would be rebellions in these two regions. Therefore, the local military preparedness has always been lax, and the imperial court has never made any contingency plans or arrangements on how to suppress any unrest that occurs in these areas.

This time, Fang La, Lü Shinang, and Chen Shisi taught the court and Tong Guan a lesson. Tong Guan realized that "although the map shows that southern and northern Zhejiang are connected, in reality, to fight from northern Zhejiang to southern Zhejiang, you can't directly take the land route and cross countless mountains. It's better to take the sea route, control the mouths of the major rivers in southern Zhejiang and central Fujian, and then go upstream."

Therefore, it was necessary to leave Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Lu Da, and others, who had been working in Liangzhe Road for almost two years, to continue maintaining order in the area.

In this way, Zhao Zicheng was able to avoid the situation where Tong Guan, upon returning to his army, would transfer away Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, and Lu Da, whom Zhao Zicheng had trained, or even drag them into the Western Army to serve as cannon fodder in the campaign against Liao.

Zhao Zicheng was well aware that as long as Tong Guan held power and directed operations, and with the incompetent Emperor Huizong of Song hindering them from the rear, the Northern Expedition against the Liao Dynasty was doomed to fail. Moreover, the failure of the Northern Expedition was not due to insufficient troops, but rather to insufficient supplies.

Historically, during the Northern Expedition at the end of the Xuanhe era, the military equipment was old and in disrepair, the food and fodder were insufficient, and the accounts of various places were severely depleted. In the end, the forced requisition of materials before the war actually led to more peasant uprisings.

Therefore, sending fewer troops in the Northern Expedition might actually result in fewer losses and less harm. This is not because Zhao Zicheng was unpatriotic, but because he did not want the people he had trained to jump into a fire pit.

As for Yang Zhi and others being left behind on the coast of Zhejiang to prepare a patrol force for flood control, and not being able to be taken away by Zhao Zicheng to take up their posts elsewhere, Zhao Zicheng didn't care about that.

He just wanted Yang Zhi and the others to avoid being taken away and killed. Yang Zhi and Lin Chong would stay in Liangzhe for the time being, and when the world changed dramatically in the future, they would naturally have a chance to rejoin the ranks and serve Zhao Zicheng.

The temporary separation was merely a strategy to reassure Zhao Ji.

Time flew by and it was the end of March in the third year of Xuanhe.

News of the complete pacification of Liangzhe Road finally reached Tokyo. After confirming the merits and demerits of the various forces, Emperor Zhao Ji issued decrees to reward and punish them one by one, and then ordered Tong Guan to officially return to the capital to prepare for a new northern expedition against the Liao Kingdom.

After doing all this, Emperor Huizong finally remembered his distant nephew Zhao Zicheng a few days later, and officially issued an edict to transfer Zhao Zicheng to Laizhou in Jingdong East Circuit as the prefect, and to promote his rank and title.

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P.S.: Sorry, I'm not good at writing romance, so I've omitted a few hundred words of it to avoid my weaknesses. It's more important to focus on the serious matters of promotion and power struggles.

(End of this chapter)