I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 164 I will never start a civil war, but I am not afraid of one either.

The first day of the fourth month in the second year of the Jingkang era.

Before Zhao Zicheng could even hold his inauguration ceremony as regent, Zhao Gou, who was in Bianjing, had already preemptively declared himself emperor—of course, the time difference between the two wouldn't be long, as Zhao Zicheng's preparations had begun even earlier.

Because communication is relatively slow, the territory controlled by Zhao Zicheng is quite scattered. The final ceremony might be held slightly later than expected, perhaps by half a month or a month, but this is not a major issue.

Because Zhao Zicheng had prepared for a long time while Zhao Gou was rushing to make preparations, Zhao Gou's preparations were very inadequate.

On the day of Zhao Gou's enthronement ceremony, only a few major traitors, including Qin Hui, Li Bangyan, and Zhang Bangchang, as well as some other Hebei generals who had surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, such as Li Cheng and Kong Yanzhou, attended the ceremony.

Historically, Zhao Gou went south, and the puppet Qi dynasty was established in the north. Rebel generals like Li Cheng and Kong Yanzhou naturally followed the puppet Qi, but now, due to the butterfly effect, they all followed Zhao Gou. However, not all the puppet Qi generals from the original history will serve under Zhao Gou in this life. Because of Zhao Zicheng's strength, some Han generals who were originally forced into the rebel camp by chance have been able to turn against the Han in this life.

The main reason was that Zhao Zicheng had been operating in Dengzhou and Laizhou for several years and had a good reputation, so military men were willing to serve him. For example, Xu Wen, a general from Laizhou who had also surrendered to the puppet Qi and Jin dynasties in history, chose to follow Zhao Zicheng directly from the bottom up in this life. His loyalty was not a problem, and he also felt that following Prince Xiu was a promising career path. Everyone wanted to climb the ranks through legitimate means, and they all saw the demonstration effect of Yue Fei's rapid promotion.

Among these men, including Li Cheng and Kong Yanzhou, Li Cheng was a traitorous general from Hebei, and his stronghold was located on Jurchen territory—something he couldn't avoid. Kong Yanzhou, on the other hand, was originally a bandit from Shandong. If Zhao Zicheng wanted to win him over, he could, but Zhao Zicheng was somewhat disdainful of doing so.

Kong Yanzhou was a truly morally depraved man; even as a thief, he was the most beastly of all. Historically, he not only resolutely acted as a traitor, looting and slaughtering innocent people everywhere, but he also repeatedly petitioned Wanyan Liang to break the Song-Jin treaty and quickly attack the Southern Song Dynasty. He even raped his own daughter.

Zhao Zicheng dared not employ such a ruthless and cunning beast, nor could he easily deceive him into surrendering before his evil deeds became known, as that would damage Zhao Zicheng's reputation. Therefore, he could only refuse the other party's offer of amnesty from the beginning, and this piece of trash eventually surrendered to Zhao Gou.

In short, Zhao Gou's emergence did attract some oddballs and scoundrels from all walks of life, but that was about it.

As for Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao of Hunan, and Cao Cheng of the Five Ridges, these people were all acting as local tyrants in their own territories, so why would they come to Zhao Gou's place to show their respect? They would simply send a congratulatory letter and go through the whole formal process of urging him to ascend the throne, which would be considered giving him enough face.

The entire ceremony was ridiculous from beginning to end.

After ascending the throne, in order to establish his authority and to show that "the Song Dynasty has been rebuilt," Zhao Gou hastily announced a new era name, changing it to "Shaoxing Year 1."

Without a doubt, Zhao Gou in this era would not dare to use the reign title "Jianyan," which clearly indicates a nation established by force. The foundation upon which he rebuilt his country came from the military support of the Jin people and from the nominal withdrawal of the Jin's direct troops from the territory south of the Yellow River after the peace talks. How could he dare to "expel the Tartars"?
That's why he skipped the Jianyan era and went directly to Shaoxing, indicating that he had inherited the throne from his father and brother and turned the tide after their capture. At least the Song Dynasty didn't have to worry about its demise, and the lineage could continue.

This is not bad either, at least the reign title Jianyan was left unpolluted, and Zhao Zicheng can still use it if he wants to launch a northern expedition to drive out the Tartars in the future.

Furthermore, since Zhao Gou became emperor in Bianjing in this lifetime and did not go south, he could not rename Yuezhou to "Shaoxing" again, so the place name Shaoxing did not appear in Liangzhe Road.

That place should be called Kuaiji or Yuezhou, and it will remain the same as it was before.

……

One month after Zhao Gou held his enthronement ceremony, on the first day of the fifth lunar month,

Zhao Zicheng also came to Zhenjiang Prefecture in Jiangnan East Road, where a relatively simple ceremony was held to complete the process of assuming the position of regent and commander-in-chief of all the armies.

At the same time, he set up the headquarters of the Grand Marshal of the Army in Zhenjiang. His previous territory in Dengzhou and Laizhou was too remote, located in a corner of the territory, making it inconvenient to manage other newly surrendered forces and easy to be out of reach.

He did consider setting up a headquarters in Xuzhou, but because Suzhou, south of Xuzhou, and that large area of ​​Huaibei west of the Si River were now controlled by Zhao Gou, the area from Suzhou to Bengbu and Fengyang in later generations was all occupied by the enemy.

Therefore, setting up the site in Xuzhou would easily lead to poor communication between the north and south.

Zhao Zicheng did not choose Jiangning (Nanjing), nor did he choose Hangzhou in Liangzhe Road, which had a stronger connotation of partial peace. He deliberately chose Zhenjiang, which was also to emphasize that he was always prepared for the Northern Expedition and would never slacken his efforts. Zhenjiang was a key point for crossing the Yangtze River to the north, which made it even more significant.

Moreover, it was merely a temporary headquarters of a Grand Marshal, not the emperor's "temporary residence," so Zhenjiang was perfectly qualified.

At the ceremony, Zhao Zicheng, supported by senior officials such as Zhang Shuye, Zhu Shengfei, Zhou Ge, Chen Guoting, and Hu Zhiru, announced the core national policies for a special period to come.

Firstly, Zhao Zicheng used this opportunity to elevate the status and treatment of soldiers—the elevation of status was relatively conservative, as he didn't want to create problems for future generations; it mainly demonstrated that during this special period, the emperor's precautions against military personnel had lessened, and he was more trusting of those he employed. However, the improvement in soldiers' treatment was substantial and significant.

After the ceremony, Zhao Zicheng openly announced: "From this day forward, you must all focus on thoroughly investigating the issues of empty pay and vacancies in the army. Our Great Song Dynasty's military preparedness was previously lax, which led to today's disaster. Emperor Taizu was not wrong to be wary of military officials because he was concerned about the calamities of the Five Dynasties."

However, as the years went by, the soldiers could not even receive their full annual military pay of thirty strings of cash. They gradually became the private slaves of their generals, with no fighting ability whatsoever. Moreover, over the past hundred years of the dynasty, paper money and paper invoices had become rampant, and prices had soared. Even if they received thirty strings of cash now, it would not be enough to support the soldiers and their families. They still had to take on private jobs for their generals.

Since I have assumed the regency, my first order of business is to raise the annual salary of all soldiers to eighty strings of cash! Normally it's six strings per month, totaling seventy-two strings, with an additional eight strings at the end of the year, bringing the total to eighty. At the same time, I will also increase the salaries of officers and generals at all levels, ensuring they are no lower than their civil counterparts. Furthermore, I will provide additional salary increases for military officers based on their rank.

However, with such generous rewards, the penalties for vacancies and underpayments will also be increased. Past offenses may be overlooked, but anyone who dares to exploit soldiers again will be severely punished!

Zhao Zicheng's request elicited varying reactions from the officials. Zhang Shuye and Chen Guoting, who had followed or worked with Zhao Zicheng for several years, knew that Zhao Zicheng was not a radical person, and therefore understood that his sudden and drastic measures must have a reason and were not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

However, the others, such as Zhu Shengfei, Zhou Ge, and Hu Zhiru, had only been working for the company for less than two months and were not yet familiar with the new leader's style of doing things. They were immediately worried, thinking that he was all talk and no action and had no idea about the financial difficulties.

They all earnestly advised: "Your Highness, you must not be rash! Although this move is a good policy, we must also consider the financial difficulties. The Ministry of Revenue has not yet been rebuilt, the Bianjing treasury has fallen into the hands of the Jurchens, the court's reserves have been wiped out, leaving only the southeastern half of the country. Taxes and levies are still being adjusted. Where will we get so much money to increase the soldiers' pay?"

Zhao Zicheng seized the opportunity to establish his authority: "Money is not a problem. I had some spoils from the previous counterattack against the Jin people. At the same time, I also have some properties in Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Liangzhe. Now I am willing to sacrifice my family's wealth to help the army! Even if there is still a large shortfall, we can find another way!"

I do not ask everyone to join me in this national crisis or donate to the army, but at this critical moment, the court should rectify the bloated bureaucracy and excessive spending that has plagued our Great Song Dynasty for a century. I hereby declare that from next year until the complete recovery of the Central Plains, since half of the country has fallen into enemy hands and half of the people are unable to participate in the imperial examinations, the total number of candidates to be selected for the imperial examinations in our Great Song Dynasty shall be halved.

Only after the Central Plains are recovered can the original scale of the civil service examination be restored. Moreover, before the Central Plains are recovered, no one will be granted a nominal official title or salary unless they hold a substantive post. All the positions of "Supervisor of Palaces and Temples" created under false pretenses by Cai Jing's faction during the reign of the late emperor will also be abolished and no longer paid.

All the money and grain squeezed out from these sources must be used for military supplies and pay. In addition, the imperial court will also create a number of new positions for civil officials who are truly poor and destitute, such as being responsible for auditing the distribution of military pay and checking whether generals have embezzled or underpaid pay.

These positions should not increase the number of officials, but a group can be selected from those who were already holding honorary titles and receiving stipends, and converted to substantive posts as a transitional measure during this special period of national crisis. I myself have already sacrificed my family's wealth to alleviate the financial burden on the military; shouldn't all civil officials share this hardship?

Many of the newly arrived civil officials felt a chill in their hearts, knowing that His Highness Prince Xiu was clearly going to change the situation in the Song Dynasty where civil officials had been treated extremely well for the past 160 years, while military officers and soldiers had been severely suppressed.

In peacetime, if an emperor dared to do such a thing, he would immediately be denounced as a foolish ruler by the civil service.

But these are special times, and Zhao Zicheng himself has outstanding military achievements. He is the number one anti-Jin faction among the Han people in the world, and he personally fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The knife handle is in someone else's hands, and it's a knife they've sharpened themselves, so it's very easy for them to use. In this situation where sheer force can overcome any skill, what can the civil service group possibly do?
Several newly promoted top officials dared not object. However, some relatively minor figures, those who had slipped through the censorate system to join Zhao Zicheng, were momentarily confused and voiced their opposition with strong words.

Zhao Zicheng believed that he was still in accordance with the Song Dynasty's benevolent policy of "not punishing people for their words," but that was all he was entitled to. As for other transfers and punishments, they were all permissible.

He dealt with a few without hesitation as a demonstration, and then immediately announced his second measure—which, in fact, was two sides of the same coin as the first measure, which was to increase military pay and reduce redundant officials and expenses.

That is, he publicly declared: all the central civil officials who followed Zhao Gou's group and formed the group to negotiate peace between Zhao Gou and the Jin were traitors! As for military generals who led troops, it was not a problem for them to follow Zhao Gou because they were not literate and did not understand politics. As long as they were willing to surrender in the future and fight against the Jin, they could be relatively lenient.

However, those civil officials who followed Zhao Gou were all labeled as having "incited vassal kings to negotiate peace with the Jin for personal gain," and were completely unforgivable. At most, they might be questioned less during future investigations, or simply dismissed and sent home to farm, but their political future would certainly be completely ruined.

Zhao Zicheng's reasons for making this announcement were quite valid: military generals were uneducated and ignorant, only knowing how to fight. Zhao Gou also shared the surname Zhao, so it was understandable that they might not be able to see the situation clearly and would still risk their lives for someone with the surname Zhao. However, civil officials were educated and knowledgeable. If they had read books and yet advised Zhao Gou to recognize a traitor as a friend and disregard the fact that his emperor and father had been captured, that would be considered slander and incitement.

Although Zhao Zicheng did not acknowledge Zhao Gou's rule, and therefore could not claim that dealing with the treacherous officials around Zhao Gou was "purging the emperor's inner circle," the principle was the same. Zhao Zicheng here no longer accepted any path of reform for Qin Hui, Li Bangyan, Zhang Bangchang, or other civil officials who had surrendered to Zhao Gou.

Zhao Zicheng knew that the reason the Song Dynasty had been so decadent for so many years was because there were too many redundant officials in the civil service who took money but did nothing, and so many who were corrupt. The problem of corruption in the Song Dynasty was definitely serious, but the Song Dynasty had never really cared about it.

Now that we're about to conquer the world, why give a way out to all those people who only know the Four Books and Five Classics and are greedy? The small group of talented and capable people who fled to Jiangnan are enough. The number of scholars in the Song Dynasty is several times more than redundant. With the Jurchens taking Bianjing, Zhao Zicheng can get rid of the burden of the civil service group.

Even if 80% of the civil officials were dismissed, and only the remaining 20% ​​were allowed to do the actual work, the Song Dynasty's administrative affairs could still be completed.

The money saved can, of course, be used for construction and national defense.

Zhao Zicheng wanted to make the Jin people regret helping him solve the problem of redundant officials.

All the newly appointed civil officials who followed him were slightly apprehensive when they saw this decision, but because Zhao Zicheng was very measured and had said that he would only “not pardon the civil officials who misled Zhao Gou”, this punishment would only affect those who had chosen the wrong side, so the civil officials in Jiangnan did not dare to say anything.

The price paid by the civil officials in Jiangnan was that "after those who chose the wrong side were dismissed, the chairs vacated might also be taken away, so don't expect the people below to step up and fill the gaps."

Zhao Zicheng was crippled along with his chair.

After reaching an agreement on these two major agendas concerning redundant officials and expenses, and the embezzlement of military pay, everyone was forced to confront a most serious and significant political issue:
Zhao Zicheng denounced all the civil officials around Zhao Gou as treacherous and wicked. So, should we immediately attack Zhao Gou himself? Should we deal with external threats first, or eliminate Zhao Gou first?

Some people are already worried that Zhao Zicheng will instigate a civil war.

Fortunately, Zhao Zicheng was very clear about his qualifications to oversee the country.

After taking big steps in the first two points, he stood firm on this point:
"Although Prince Kang was coerced by the Jurchens and misled by treacherous officials, it seems that he has not committed treason. Determining his guilt is a matter for the future; for now, the priority is to deal with the Jurchens."

I have two key points: as long as Prince Kang does not invade me and other anti-Jin rebels, I can refrain from attacking him first, thus ensuring that I do not fire the first arrow of infighting among the members of my Great Song imperial family.

Before that, I will focus all my efforts on dealing with the Jurchens. The destruction of the empire is far more serious than the destruction of a nation, and protecting the empire is far more important than protecting the interests of the Zhao family or even individuals within the Zhao family. If I can one day resolve the Jurchens' problem, the problem of King Kang's momentary lapse in judgment will naturally be resolved. Why then must I commit further bloodshed?

However, while actively resisting the Jin and defending against Prince Kang, there is one special case that must be singled out. That is, we can also regard the surrendered Song Dynasty officials and generals who have submitted to Prince Kang as Han Chinese troops under Prince Kang's command, and we will not take the initiative to attack them either; we will not attack unless attacked.

As for Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao of the two lakes, these people were not originally government troops, but were all from Manichaean sects, similar to Fang La and others whom I helped to eliminate back then. I will not show mercy to these people.

I will also tell King Kang that this is a special case. I intend to take action against Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao, and connect Bashu and Guanzhong. If he were to go to Ezhou, Yuezhou, and other places to rescue Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao, then he would be the one to start a civil war among the Han people.

Aside from this special case, I will dedicate all my military strength to fighting the Jurchens for the next few years. I am not speaking rashly; the Jurchens have just taken Henan and Hebei and are currently at the height of their power. My Great Song Dynasty is in a state of disarray. Jiangnan and Huainan were not originally under my jurisdiction and have not yet been prepared for war. Therefore, in the next year or two, our main strategy against the Jurchens will be defensive.

But within three years, I will definitely launch a full-scale Northern Expedition! Otherwise, how can I face the throne? Moreover, even this year, I have some radical strategies to strike at the Jurchens, but they are not easy to announce for the time being.

"Military matters are of great importance; you are all learned scholars, and you wouldn't understand them anyway. I'll leave Zhang Shuye and I to discuss them privately later."

The ministers were puzzled as to what Zhao Zicheng was planning to do, but they had no right to interfere in military matters and could only let Zhao Zicheng make the decisions on his own.

However, some ministers tried to offer indirect advice: Your Highness's reliance on military officials and the lack of any intention to rebuild the Privy Council, coupled with the fact that the Shogunate directly commands the generals in battle, could easily lead to them becoming too powerful to control in the future...

Zhao Zicheng's answer was also straightforward: Who among you has ever seen Xiang Yu worry about his generals becoming too powerful?

I am no ordinary prince! It is those emperors who know nothing about military affairs who have to worry about these problems!

The Song Dynasty's anti-Jin forces are now directly loyal to me! I am only twenty-five years old, and I will definitely live longer than the generals who will lead the Northern Expedition in the future. There is absolutely no problem that "my descendants will not be able to control the arrogant and fierce generals"!

Having said all that, Zhao Zicheng's newly assembled group of civil officials had finally come to a complete understanding of the situation.

Well then, they should just obediently act as a moneybag and rubber stamp for raising military supplies and stabilizing the local area. Anyone who dares to overstep their bounds in other matters will definitely not have a good ending.

Zhao Zicheng's order was quickly implemented. In May, all the soldiers who had inherited the military from the Song Dynasty's Imperial Guard, as well as the soldiers who had just been transferred from the Jiangnan Garrison to the Imperial Guard, received their full monthly pay of six strings of cash, which was much better than the previous situation where they received two and a half strings of cash and were often deducted from their pay.

In times of war, it's perfectly reasonable to give soldiers high salaries. In peacetime, one can coast along and make money, but now, after receiving only a few months' pay, soldiers might be sent to the front lines to die. Who would work hard if the pay was so low?

The soldiers' morale soared, and they immediately adjusted their mindset, shifting their allegiance directly to His Highness Prince Xiu.

Zhao Zicheng's attitude was also quickly conveyed to Zhao Gou.

When Zhao Gou learned of Zhao Zicheng's attitude that "he would not initiate a civil war, but would retaliate if Zhao Gou attacked him," he was somewhat hesitant.

Ultimately, Zhao Gou decided to sit back and watch the tigers fight, tacitly allowing Zhao Zicheng to designate Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao as "special cases," not recognizing them as Song Dynasty military generals, but instead labeling them as Manichaean sorcerers.

"Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao don't obey my orders anyway. Let Zhao Zicheng wear them down first. It would be best if the two tigers fought each other and both were severely injured. Even if Zhao Zicheng can defeat Zhong Xiang, he will definitely be exhausted and weakened. At that time, I can take advantage of their weakness."

What Zhao Gou didn't know was that Zhao Zicheng's apparent regent's attack on Zhong Xiang Yang Yao was merely a smokescreen. In reality, Zhao Zicheng had arranged another detachment to directly confront the Jurchens.

(End of this chapter)