I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 139 Arguing for the Abolition of the Imperial Currency Based on Reason

To be honest, before Zhao Zicheng came to Hebei to participate in the negotiations to redeem Yanjing, he didn't care about the specifics of how, when, or where Wanyan Aguda died in history. Nor did he care about the historical narratives and moral high ground narratives of the Jin Dynasty.

Like most Han Chinese of later generations, he received a relatively simple education from childhood that "might makes right" and was indifferent to the complexities of diplomacy.
They felt that "even if you are in the right diplomatically and morally, and you are the innocent party being invaded by the enemy, if you are not strong enough and cannot win, it is useless to be in the right."

This isn't to blame Zhao Zicheng for lacking awareness, but rather because later generations of Chinese people have experienced too much historical suffering and know all too well that when invaded by the Japanese, being in the right was useless. Therefore, after applying this perspective, they no longer care about the intricacies of diplomacy between the Song and Jin dynasties; might makes right.

However, after personally getting involved in the diplomatic negotiations to redeem Yanjing, experiencing things firsthand, and being reminded by his wife's clear-sighted observation, Zhao Zicheng changed a lot and began to realize the importance of collecting evidence of the Jurchens' untrustworthiness and injustice in advance.

Besides, there are some things he's doing anyway, so he's just sitting around doing nothing. He can't leave Bazhou until the negotiations are completed.

Since so much time is going to be wasted anyway, why not do some small things within our power for the country and the people?

After adjusting his mindset, Zhao Zicheng quickly moved forward with his work from multiple angles.

First, he spent several days theoretically sorting out the possible problems that the Jin people might have had before and after Wanyan Aguda's death, and analyzing the reasons why the Jin people would do such a thing, so that he could collect incriminating materials in a targeted manner later.

Many later historical books, in order to be rigorous, dared not make too many deductions and basically described the death of Wanyan Aguda according to the official propaganda of the History of Jin, that is, he "suddenly died without any warning" on the way back from the army.

Most later Han scholars did not delve into how Wanyan Aguda actually died, showing little interest in or indifference to these details, and simply glossing over the matter.

However, after personally intervening in the current negotiation situation, Zhao Zicheng, based on his own observations, quickly came to a new conclusion—

Historically, Wanyan Aguda certainly died of illness, but it may not have been a "sudden death" as the Jin people later claimed. There is no record of the cause of his illness. Not only is it not mentioned in the History of Jin, but it is also not mentioned in the more detailed first-hand materials of the time, the Veritable Records of Jin.

It's important to know that, according to the historical records of the Jin Dynasty, the course of the emperor's illness was often recorded in considerable detail. For example, when Wanyan Aguda's successor, Wanyan Wuqimai, died, the historical records clearly state: "On the day of Gengzi, he fell ill. On the day of Xinchou, an edict was issued ordering the Marshal's Office to retake Henan and Shaanxi. On the day of Jiwei in the sixth month, he passed away."

It is evident that the emperor's illness and final arrangements should be mentioned. The cause of Wanyan Aguda's death is not recorded at all, and even the location of his death is subject to different accounts. Most of the notes of the Song people at the time wrote that he "died on the way," while the Jin people wrote that he died after returning to the palace.

These disagreements must have reasons and motives; they are not simply mistakes or oversights.

Zhao Zicheng, through professional analysis, came to a conjecture: perhaps in history Wanyan Aguda died after being ill for a long time, and that he died on his way back.

The reason why the Jin people concealed the course of the illness, said it was a sudden death, and even delayed recording the date of death may have been to create a time gap for "keeping the death a secret" in order to make the power transfer at that time more stable.

This is easy to understand. Just like when Qin Shi Huang died, he had to wait until he was brought back to Xianyang before his funeral was held. During the journey, they used rotten salted fish to cover up the smell of the rotting body for a long time.

Another motive for the Jin dynasty to fabricate the story may have been to facilitate later propaganda that "the war was caused by the Song dynasty breaking the alliance and harboring the traitor Zhang Jue. The Jin dynasty never intended to break the alliance; it was the Song people who were too arrogant, and the Jin dynasty was acting in self-defense and punishing the traitors."

According to the later accounts of the Jin people, "When Emperor Taizu was alive, the Jin had already captured Yanjing, but still kept its promise and returned Yanjing to the Song. Even after Emperor Taizu passed away, Emperor Taizong continued to uphold the promise, until a few months later the Song people became increasingly audacious and bullying..."

However, if the world were to learn that Wanyan Aguda did not die suddenly, but rather from a prolonged illness, then the moral high ground of "forbearance" emphasized by the Jin people would be greatly weakened.

The biggest difference between the two is that "people who die suddenly do not know that they are about to die."

If a person who is unaware that he is about to die chooses to keep the covenant, it can be interpreted as him keeping the covenant sincerely, rather than keeping it because he is unable to act due to objective limitations and has no other choice.

If Aguda knew he was about to die, his adoption of a conservative diplomatic strategy might not have been genuine, but rather a reluctant expedient to avoid the problems that would arise from a power vacuum after his death.

Although diplomatic pretexts have always emphasized judging actions over intentions, it is always good to gain some moral justification by judging intentions.

The former's decision not to break the contract is "not because they are unwilling, but because they are unable," while the latter's decision not to break the contract can only be described as "not because they are unwilling, but because they are unable."

In order to make the Northern Song Dynasty appear to be the undisputed party that broke the treaty, the Jin Dynasty needed to emphasize that its adherence to the treaty was voluntary, not forced. By fabricating Aguda's sudden death, the Jin Dynasty could eliminate the possibility that he was forced to keep the treaty due to foreseeing his own death, thereby strengthening the Jin Dynasty's moral stance.

This has transformed a historically accidental choice into a morally inevitable one.

……

Having thoroughly understood the possible motives behind the Jin dynasty's forgery in history, and having reversed the Jin dynasty's logic of action in advance by having a cheat code of historical foresight, Zhao Zicheng knew exactly what he needed to do.

First, he needed to select the parts of this deduction that were self-consistent and would not expose his prophetic abilities, and align them with Tong Guan's, trying to make Tong Guan less anxious and to convince Tong Guan that "the Jin people should be more anxious than us right now."

As for speaking directly to the emperor, that was unlikely, because Tong Guan would certainly not allow him to do so. The emperor was still unaware of how badly Tong Guan was fighting on the Hebei front and how much profit he needed to redeem from the Jin dynasty.

Once Zhao Zicheng finds the emperor, Tong Guan will be unable to cover it up any longer and will be completely exposed.

Therefore, Zhao Zicheng could at most adopt a firm yet gentle stance, hoping that Chancellor Tong would understand the situation and prioritize the nation's interests, thus allowing Tong Guan to save face. Tong Guan might then worry that "Zhao Zicheng is overstepping his bounds in his memorial," and thus he might listen to Zhao Zicheng's opinion and take a slightly tougher stance in the negotiations with Jin.

Of course, this kind of stamina wouldn't last long; at most, it would last a month or two longer than in the original historical records. After all, Tong Guan was a eunuch; how long could he be expected to last? Two months would be quite extraordinary.

If this drags on any longer and Zhao Zicheng still can't resolve the problem, Tong Guan will definitely turn against him and insist on proceeding with the original plan.

After persuading Tong Guan to continue delaying and outlast the Jin people, Zhao Zicheng's second task was to try his best to gather information about the health status of the Jin high-ranking officials through various means.

He wanted to ensure that he secretly obtained some circumstantial evidence that "Wanyan Aguda died in June of the fifth year of Xuanhe." Even if it wasn't direct, as long as there were enough clues, it would be enough to piece together enough evidence to convince the Han people of the world. This was because these things were originally intended to unify internal thinking and unite the people, not to be used for lawsuits.

Historically, in the early stages of the Northern Song Dynasty's invasion by the Jin Dynasty, the morale of the people was actually very low. One important reason for this was that many Han Chinese civilians and soldiers felt that "the court was in the wrong in starting this war, and that the court had broken the agreement and provoked the Tartars."

Since the imperial court was the one who caused the trouble, fewer people were willing to serve it wholeheartedly.

Zhao Zicheng is now making preparations on the public opinion front, hiding some evidence in advance. He doesn't expect the Jin people to believe it when the war starts, but at least more Song people will believe it, and even unite around him personally, which will be enough.

Moreover, as long as he produces evidence and raises his voice, regardless of whether the world believes him or not, at least everyone will know that "Zhao Zicheng is a rare insightful person among the imperial family. He saw long ago that the Jurchens were not good people and had been secretly on guard against them."

This also helps to portray Zhao Zicheng as resourceful and wise.

In those chaotic times, whether the ruler was wise or not was an important factor influencing whether civil and military officials were willing to serve him and whether there was a future in joining him.

Having finalized these ideas and clarified the direction of action, Zhao Zicheng spared no effort in collecting relevant supporting evidence in advance.

His work did indeed proceed relatively smoothly—mainly because the Jin people never imagined that the Song people would be so eager and willing to go to such lengths to gather intelligence. The Jin people only truly took the matter seriously in the days leading up to Wanyan Aguda's death. Because of the haste, so many mistakes and omissions occurred, leading many Song dynasty historical records to mention that Wanyan Aguda died on his way back.

Now that Zhao Zicheng had anticipated this, his efficiency in gathering information was naturally much higher than that of the Han literati who had previously let sheep roam freely in history. Therefore, it is not surprising that he had a lot of corroborating evidence and incriminating material.

……

Another half month passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhao Zicheng openly maintained that every day, all he did was engage in verbal negotiations, insisting that "the annual tribute is a matter of national dignity for the Song Dynasty, and we will never back down."
At the same time, he tried to mislead the Jin people by revealing some false information to them, saying that "the reason why Chancellor Tong wanted to rush to complete the negotiations was simply because the emperor did not know the situation on the front line in Hebei and Chancellor Tong wanted to cover it up."

But I, Zhao, am a member of the imperial family, and I prioritize the interests of the nation. I am young and unafraid to offend people. The Emperor has bestowed upon me the title of Duke, and of course I must repay his kindness! Therefore, I have already reported this matter to the Emperor! Now the Emperor knows the situation on the Hebei front, and Chancellor Tong is furious and wants to severely punish me. But he has lost all fear and is resigned to his fate; let them drag on as they please.”

In fact, Zhao Zicheng would never reveal the situation that Tong Guan was hiding to Zhao Ji right now. He just pretended to do so so that Tong Guan would appear to have no weaknesses.

Just like when the Jin people held one of Tong Guan's hostages, Zhao Zicheng shot the hostage dead, so that Tong Guan no longer had to worry about being threatened and could go into battle unburdened.

Of course, even at this point, the Jin dynasty still had many spies infiltrating the Song dynasty, some of whom inherited their networks from the Liao dynasty. After the Liao high-ranking officials in Yanjing surrendered to the Jin, a significant portion of the intelligence network that the Liao had accumulated over a century was inherited by the Jin. Given enough time, the Jin were also able to find out the truth and discover that Zhao Zicheng had not exposed Tong Guan.

But right now, Zhao Zicheng is determined to take this gamble. He's betting that the Jin people can't wait any longer and don't have time for this final round of verification, because Wanyan Aguda is really about to die.

Meanwhile, Zhao Zi said that before this final round of negotiations, he had privately told Tong Guan about his plans in advance.

This is what he devised with Tong Guan: "So that the Grand Chancellor may know, in order to make the Jurchens feel that the Grand Chancellor has no weakness, I am willing to send someone to secretly submit a memorial, which will tell you about the recent situation in Hebei and report to Your Majesty."

Once this memorial reaches the emperor's hands, the Jurchens will surely feel that the Grand Chancellor has nothing left to hide, and they will inevitably become enraged. They will then be unable to demand a high price and will be eager to conclude a treaty.

In reality, this memorial of mine will not actually reach the Emperor. My channels will try to go through the Privy Council, where the Chancellor can send people to intercept it in Tokyo. I only need the Jurchens to confirm that I have sent the memorial to Tokyo. If the Jurchens get impatient, they may not have time to find out what happens next.”

Zhao Zicheng did not want to offend Tong Guan completely immediately, but he also had to take advantage of this time gap.

Tong Guan was somewhat moved when he heard this, but Zhao Zi claimed that he was just putting on a show with him for the sake of national interests.

However, this method will naturally have side effects. Zhao Zicheng had thought of this from the beginning and took the initiative to remind Tong Guan: "However, if outsiders find out that I am trying to expose the Grand Chancellor, it will damage the Grand Chancellor's reputation."

Afterwards, the Chancellor may use this as a pretext to suppress subordinates and establish his authority, but the specific measures should be carefully considered and taken into account by the Chancellor.

Zhao Zicheng has already made this clear, so what can Tong Guan do?
Zhao Zi said that this person was willing to be slightly suppressed by him on the surface, but in reality, he did not want to be at odds with him. He was a man of integrity!

Therefore, Tong Guan immediately said: "If this is indeed a charade, then after returning to the capital, I will inevitably be punished to establish my authority. However, I will secretly be grateful to you. Your authority may be temporarily reduced, but that will only be for a year or two until the storm passes."

As for your merit in helping the court negotiate better terms, that's a real achievement. I will arrange for someone else to submit a memorial to the emperor, and he might even promote your rank, effectively demoting you and temporarily placing you on a sideline.

This wasn't the first time Zhao Zicheng had encountered such treatment—a promotion in name only, a demotion as a form of reprimand. When he was transferred from Suzhou and Hangzhou to Dengzhou and Laizhou in the north, Emperor Huizong of Song (Zhao Ji) had greatly promoted Zhao Zicheng's rank and title, then transferred him to a similar position or even slightly demoted him.

If this time, the outcome is truly one of bringing glory to the country, the usual procedure will be followed: the title will be further promoted, but the person will be given a smaller post.

As a result, many people believe that "Zhao Zicheng offended Tong Guan for the sake of national interests and for the sake of doing things officially and pragmatically, so Tong Guan sabotaged him behind the scenes and demoted him in name only."

This is not good for Zhao Zicheng's current efforts to consolidate power, because if a member of the royal family, a duke, offends Tong Guan, it will certainly have more adverse effects on future developments.

However, Zhao Zicheng knew that there was no need to worry about this at all—because in another year or two, when Tong Guan was labeled as one of the "Five Traitors" (Zhu Mian had already been killed and there were no more than six traitors, only five), "becoming enemies with Tong Guan" would no longer be a negative factor, but would instead become a positive one.

On that day, Zhu Mian died at the hands of Zhao Zicheng, Tong Guan also became enemies with Zhao Zicheng, and Cai Jing also disliked him. Wouldn't Zhao Zicheng then be regarded by the Qingliu as a "rare virtuous prince of the imperial family"?

So this deal is a great deal.

……

Under Zhao Zicheng's manipulation, the Jin people were indeed deceived and ultimately became the first to give in.

Historically, the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty completed the signing of the redemption agreement for Yanjing at the end of May of that year, but in this life, it was delayed by a month or so, until almost the end of June.

The Jin people finally couldn't hold back any longer, because Wanyan Aguda was so ill that he had been in a coma for several days and couldn't get out of bed.

The Jin people were too afraid of Aguda's death or any unforeseen events, so they decided to secure their gains as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, the Jin people also realized that they had no intention of maintaining a long-term peace with the Song Dynasty; they only intended to make a quick buck and then get through the period of instability in their internal power transition.

Once the second emperor of the Jin Dynasty has secured his position, they will still march south to attack the Song Dynasty. At that time, it would be best if they could find an excuse. If they can't find a good excuse, they will fabricate one or nitpick. After all, if you want to find fault, you can always find a reason.

Therefore, whether or not there is a tribute payment doesn't really matter. At most, the Jin people will peacefully receive the tribute for a few years. Once the two countries go to war again, where will the tribute be? At that time, they will still have to rely on their own hands to plunder.

Therefore, the final negotiation result was that the "redemption payment" of two million strings of cash would still be paid, but the annual tribute clause was cancelled. The Jin Dynasty only requested that the annual tribute for the fifth year of the Xuanhe era be included in the "redemption payment" in one lump sum.

The two sides negotiated again on this part, removing the silver portion of the original annual tribute to Liao, accepting the silk portion but replacing it with cheaper cotton cloth. Because cotton spinning in Jin was very backward, and the price of cotton cloth in the area was about the same as that of silk, Jin accepted the offer.

Ultimately, the Song state actually paid one million strings of copper coins and 200,000 shi of grain in lieu of one million strings of copper coins (this was also the case in history; the Song state did not directly pay two million strings of copper coins, but instead converted a portion of the copper coins into grain because there was a famine in Hebei that year, and grain prices were extremely high, plus there were transportation costs, so 200,000 shi were converted into one million strings of copper coins. In the Jiangnan region, a land of fish and rice, it would definitely not have cost that much).
In addition, the 300,000 bolts of silk originally intended for the Liao Kingdom were replaced with 300,000 bolts of cotton cloth, which were then paid to the Jin Kingdom.

As for the 200,000 taels of silver that was originally supposed to be paid to the Jin Dynasty, Zhao Zicheng used the delaying tactics of Wanyan Aguda's impending death to get it over with.

In other words, Zhao Zicheng, through his own efforts, actually reduced the Song Dynasty's payment by 200,000 taels of silver compared to historical records, replaced the same amount of silk with cheaper cotton cloth, and abolished the claim of "annual tribute." (Historically, the annual tribute for that year was paid together with the indemnity in the fifth year of the Xuanhe era.)
Although historically, the Jin people only received this tribute for another year before war broke out.

However, given that no one can predict whether war will break out again soon, Zhao Zicheng's act of "arguing with reason and refusing to pay tribute" will surely bring him great prestige.

This is the first time since the Treaty of Chanyuan that the annual tribute to the Northern Dynasty has been abolished!
The news of the negotiations being reached and Yanjing being redeemed quickly reached Tokyo, although it was a embellished version of the news by Tong Guan.

However, Zhao Zicheng's reputation also soared once again.

(End of this chapter)