I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 8: Instead of relying on Zhao Gou, I'd rather do it myself

After Zhao Zicheng explained everything to the Murong family, the obstacles to cooperation between the two sides were finally cleared away.

Duan Yuyan regards Zhao Zicheng as a guarantee that the Murong family will not be bullied in Suzhou in the future, and hopes that he will be able to use his official resources to protect her family after he becomes successful.

She naturally would not stop her daughter from continuing her normal relationship with Zhao Zicheng, and she was not stingy in investing money and other resources in Zhao Zicheng. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism had not yet developed and flourished, and the people of Jianghu were not so particular.

One of them has wealth and martial arts, while the other has official status, so their advantages complement each other.

Zhao Zi, a gentleman, did not exploit the situation to pursue the woman after he had revealed the truth. He spoke openly to facilitate cooperation and to ensure that the other party had no improper ambitions.

After achieving this goal, he returned to the way he interacted with Murong Yan at the beginning, still being polite and not taking advantage of anyone.

Murong Yan was only fifteen years old and her figure had not yet fully grown, so she didn't have any strange ideas. It was very suitable for her to continue to treat her as a friend for the time being.

The two of them just changed their way of addressing each other. If she needed to go out to do something, Murong Yan would still dress up as a man and treat him with courtesy, so that outsiders would not be able to notice the flaw.

……

Two days later, early morning.

Inside Yanziwu Manor.

Zhao Zicheng was holding a wooden sword and sweating profusely.

He is meticulous every time he strikes the sword. Although his moves are extremely simple, he sets very high standards for himself. He makes sure to follow his "master's" instructions as accurately as possible and lay a solid foundation first.

He had already stayed at Murong's house for two days. During these two days, in addition to communicating with each other and enhancing mutual trust and understanding, Zhao Zicheng also seized every spare moment to practice martial arts and horse riding.

This is not because he is neglecting his main purpose and not doing his job properly, but because he is in a period of idleness these days and has nothing important to worry about.

He didn't need to intervene in the case of Duan Ming from the Yingfeng Bureau for the time being, as Zhu Zhen would first send people to raid Duan Ming's house to recover the stolen gold, silver, and jewelry that had been shipped with the Flower and Stone Gang. He would also eliminate any accomplices who were close to Duan Ming and were hiding relatively easily.

How could Zhao Zicheng be given such easy and lucrative positions? In Zhu Zhen's view, Zhao Zicheng's role was to do the tough, intellectually demanding tasks. As for the confiscation of property involving hundreds of thousands of strings of cash, he was reluctant to let Zhao Zicheng get involved.

A few days wasn't enough time for Zhao Zicheng to return to his hometown in Xiuzhou. Even if he did, he would have to rush back immediately. Zhao Zicheng simply stayed at Murong Manor for a while and sent a letter back to Xiuzhou to inform his parents that he would be delayed for a few days on the way and asked them not to worry.

During these two days, Zhao Zicheng received personal instruction from Murong Yan and verbal guidance from his mother Duan Yuyan, and he gained some basic understanding of the martial arts system of this world.

This world doesn't have some mysterious internal energy, nor any martial arts that can kill people from a distance. All martial arts, after all, are merely training the muscles, bones, and skin, and the breath, improving the body's potential, increasing coordination, control, and explosive power.

However, Duan Yuyan was indeed a prodigy in "oral martial arts." Her own training wasn't necessarily particularly strong, limited by the physical limitations of a woman, and the fact that she didn't start practicing until she was an adult, so her level was limited. But her ability to teach others was truly astonishing, always able to explain things in a profound and easy-to-understand manner. She could also spot at a glance any areas where Zhao Zicheng wasn't practicing well enough and point them out promptly.

Zhao Zicheng estimated that if he really practiced for a few months, even without any special encounters, he would definitely be able to deal with ordinary bandits and robbers in the future. However, if he wanted to brave the arrows and stones like a fierce general, it would not be done in a short time.

During these two days, Zhao Zicheng practiced martial arts and also used his spare time to figure out some truths.

In the future, he must become the leader who saves the Song Dynasty. There is no future in relying on supporting Zhao Ji or even Zhao Gou. Those guys who harm loyal people are useless.

More importantly, when he was taking a break from practicing martial arts one day, he was quietly sorting out the historical knowledge he had learned in his previous life. Suddenly, he remembered something, which further strengthened his determination to do it himself.

He suddenly remembered that Emperor Xiaozong of Song, Zhao Shen, who was later adopted by Zhao Gou, who was later eunuched, seemed to be from Xiuzhou. Xiuzhou (Jiahe Commandery) was later renamed Jiaxing because Emperor Xiaozong of Song was born there.

The "History of Song Dynasty" seems to have mentioned that Song Xiaozong's biological father was named Zhao Zimou, and the third character was an uncommon character. When Zhao Zimou was studying in his previous life, he didn't pay attention to it, didn't know it, and didn't check the pronunciation.

(Note: Song Xiaozong's father's name is "Zhao Zizhen", pronounced as "cheng" with the first tone, but the protagonist did not pay attention to how to pronounce this uncommon character in his previous life)
After thinking about this, Zhao Zicheng felt that his life experience was too similar to that of Song Xiaozong's biological father.

His hometown is in Xiuzhou! And according to the memory of the original owner of the physical body, there don't seem to be many other royal family members with similar names in Xiuzhou. No matter how you look at it, this one looks like him.

Then, he suddenly thought of a possibility: some emperors of the Song Dynasty would change their names to use uncommon characters after ascending the throne, in order to reduce the burden on the common people to avoid taboos on the emperor. This would prevent common characters from becoming taboos for the emperor and being banned from use by the whole country.

Is it possible that Song Xiaozong's father was actually named Zhao Zicheng, but because he later became the emperor's biological father, his name was changed to an uncommon character? After realizing this, Zhao Zicheng did not feel relieved at all, but instead felt more pressured.

The reason was simple. If he was really the father of Song Xiaozong, then it would have been at least seven or eight years since the birth of his son, who later became the emperor in history.

Now that my life trajectory has changed, the wife I marry in the future may not be the same wife in history. Who can guarantee that the son I give birth to will still be the same son in history?

Even if the son born in the future is the same one in history, can I guarantee that he will be adopted by Zhao Gou and become Emperor Xiaozong of Song?
None of this is guaranteed.

Song Xiaozong was considered one of the few good emperors in the Southern Song Dynasty. He restored Yue Fei's reputation after his death and presided over the Northern Expedition. Although he did not win, his intentions were good.

If he had gotten rid of Song Xiaozong, and if Zhao Gou had still been the emperor in the future, and Zhao Gou had eventually chosen an even worse successor, perhaps the Song Dynasty and the Han people all over the world would have fallen into a deeper disaster early on, and there would not even be any hope of revival.

Wouldn’t that make me a sinner in history?
When Zhao Zicheng first thought of this, he felt quite distressed. But after a day of hard swordsmanship training, he suddenly understood a truth.

Since it is possible for me to kill Emperor Xiaozong of Song, I must shoulder this historical responsibility!
Instead of expecting Zhao Gou to pass the throne to his unborn son, it would be better for him to do it himself!
No matter what means he uses, as long as he takes up the banner of resisting the Jin army and shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the nation during the Jingkang Incident, and then passes the throne to his son in the future, the problem will be solved!
Of course, this is just an idea that has just sprouted in his mind and is still very immature. He can work hard in this direction.

As for the result, we can do our best and leave the rest to fate.

If he wanted to establish his prestige in the anti-Jin cause, how could he do it without any strength? His bloodline was not close enough, so if he wanted to establish his prestige in the army, he had to have some impressive skills.

Zhao Zi claimed that he practiced martial arts not for the sake of a few small achievements in killing the enemy or protecting himself. What he wanted was to make the warriors of the world convinced and regard him as one of their own.

Just like his sixth generation ancestor, who was able to bring Taizu Changquan to the world, the joke that "Emperor Taizu defeated four hundred military prefectures with a Panlong stick" is still circulating in the world.

Zhao Kuangyin's martial arts were certainly not the strongest among the generals in the late Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty, but as long as it reached a certain level and could convince the warriors of the world, that was enough.

After fully understanding these principles, Zhao Zicheng cherished the opportunity to practice martial arts even more.

He didn't dare to slack off or complain about being tired, as he was already carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders.

He spent the entire morning sweating profusely as he swung his sword thousands of times, and also practiced riding and archery. Even Murong Yan, who was instructing him from the side, felt distressed, thinking that he was working too hard.

How could a weak scholar suddenly become so skilled in martial arts? Brother Zhao's perseverance and tenacity are truly beyond imagination.

Finally the sun was overhead. Murong Yan was afraid that he would get heatstroke, so she ordered the maid to prepare food and fruits for him to rest for a while.

At this moment, Yang Zhi, who had not been seen for two days, suddenly came to the Murong family and asked for a meeting.

During the days when Zhao Zicheng was on vacation practicing martial arts, Yang Zhi was still following the people from the Yingfeng Bureau to do business. He did not have any vacation, so he must have come to report on some progress in the case.

Zhao Zicheng wiped himself clean and wiped off the sweat, then ordered the maid from Murong Mansion to bring the person in.

Yang Zhi was soon taken to the back garden and met Zhao Zicheng.

Murong Yan, however, was in her own home and was wearing women's clothing today, so she temporarily avoided the topic. So far, only Zhao Zicheng knew that she was a woman, and she had to keep it a secret from her other friends in the martial arts world.

After Yang Zhi paid his respects and sat down, Zhao Zi said that it was like being at home and invited him to have a drink together.

Yang Zhi drank a pot of wine to quench his thirst, then wiped his mouth and said:

"Over the past two days, Duan Ming's house has been completely ransacked. A total of over 500,000 strings of cash were seized, including over 100,000 strings of cash he had accumulated over the years. Another 400,000 strings of cash were what Zhu Zhen had originally intended to send to Bian Jing to facilitate his administration. There were also gifts and profits for Grand Tutor Cai and others.

The money has been recovered, and we've even made a profit of 20-30%. Finally, Mr. Zhu's face has brightened a bit. However, there are still some other less valuable but important items that have not been found, and the accomplices have not been caught. Mr. Zhu will have to leave these subsequent difficult matters to you and me."

Zhao Zicheng was prepared for this, so he didn't complain. He calmly guided them, "Tell us more specifically about what goods we haven't recovered. And why did those accomplices you're tracking down target you and me?"

(End of this chapter)