Chengping five years, mid-June.

Emperor Zhao Zhi was furious, and immediately issued an edict to reprimand Zheng Ze for having no way to be a minister, and then frequently convened the prime ministers and ministers to discuss the matter.

On the fifth day of the seventh month, Emperor Zhao Zhi convened his ministers to openly discuss the matter of Zheng Ze, the envoy of Yingzhou Jiedu, who intercepted the Jiangnan tax money and grain.

The left minister of the political affairs hall, Liu Wei, the secretary of the military department, had the most fierce attitude, angrily reprimanded Zheng Ze for being rebellious, ignoring the imperial court, and sending troops to crusade, and showed the deputy envoy of Jiangnan Jiedu, Hong and Jiang Jiedu envoy Zhao Bo'an's recital, saying that he could not bear Zheng Ze's behavior of having no monarch and no ministers, and expressed his willingness to send troops to crusade.

The right minister, Yang Daosi, also agreed to send troops, but opposed sending the Fengjing forbidden army to the crusade, and hoped that Zhao Zhi would send envoys from other states to encircle and suppress Zheng Ze.

Since the death of the lord of a generation of Zhongxing, Wuzong, after the death of the Emperor, Yizong, Pingzong, all sixty years of two, these three emperors, all have a common characteristic, good joy, great ambition and talent, favor eunuchs, pro-villains, far virtuous ministers, good pomp, like women, so that the government is decaying, villains are in charge, loyal ministers are extinct, political corruption, corrupt officials are rampant, the Jin Dynasty, which once dominated the world, has been very decaying.

Until Zhao Zhi succeeded to the throne as the emperor, the Jin Dynasty finally ushered in a decent emperor, although Zhao Zhi was average, not the great sage Mingjun, but he was extremely diligent and thrifty, good at managing political affairs, quite decisive, good at accepting good words, internally, suppressing the power of eunuchs, externally, daring to delegate power to the ministers of the political hall, under his hard governance, the Jin Dynasty, which was on the verge of collapse, finally had some returns.

But the Jin Dynasty's national power has declined after all, since the ninth year of Tianshu, Pingzong listened to the false words of Xingchen, intending to eliminate the Hebei Domain, which caused the Hebei Rebellion, Pingzong ignored the opposition of the Manchu Dynasty civil and military, raised the country's troops, led 300,000 central forbidden troops to drive the expedition, the result was that the whole army was destroyed, Pingzong was seriously injured and returned to the dynasty, and soon died of injuries.

Although the five major feudal towns in Hebei accepted it when they saw it, they did not have the heart to destroy the Jin Dynasty, and then apologized and reconciled with the imperial court, but the 300,000 elite forbidden troops were killed and wounded, and the imperial court had no strong soldiers in hand.

After Zhao Zhi ascended the throne, he could only endure and endure again and again, and appeased him with high-ranking officials and lords in various places, and at the same time relied on Jiangnan taxes to reorganize the central forbidden army, after more than ten years, this slowly had a certain scale and improvement, but unfortunately the rebellion of the White Turban Army in the fifteenth year of Guangyuan, the 50,000 forbidden army was wiped out, and the soldiers of the imperial court were hit hard again, until five years passed, Zhao Zhi reduced the expenses of the imperial court, and he also saved food and clothing, which restored his vitality, and the central forbidden army was restored to the number of 150,000.

It can be said that since Zhao Zhi became the emperor to the present full twenty years, the Jin Dynasty did not perish in the wind and rain, but slowly improved in his hands, in addition to Zhao Zhi himself dared to use people and there are many good ministers around him to assist, Jiangnan tax money is also an extremely important factor, if the world's annual tax is divided into ten percent, only one place in the south of the Yangtze River occupies as much as fifty percent, so Zhao Zhi can tolerate turmoil in other places, but absolutely does not allow any accidents in Jiangnan.

Jiangnan Province's taxes this year, from April to May, a full two months, will be divided into seven batches to Fengjing, the first two batches are very smooth, but to the third and fourth batches, but all of them were intercepted by Zheng Ze, the political hall issued a question, Zheng Ze ignored it, neither admitted his mistake, nor said what the reason for this behavior was, and his heart was revealed, Zhao Zhi couldn't bear it, and finally moved the mind of sending troops to exterminate it.

The Jiangnan tax is related to the fundamental fortune of the country, and the attitude of the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty is very unified, that is, such unruly people must be eliminated, but in the form of sending troops, they are divided into two factions.

One faction, represented by the left minister of the political affairs hall and Liu Wei, the secretary of the military department, suggested that Huang Xu, the general of Anguo, be the governor of Pingnan, lead the forbidden army of 50,000, and go to Jiangnan to exterminate Zheng Ze.

The other faction is represented by the right minister Liu Ji, who strongly opposes sending the forbidden army out to fight, but hopes to fake other jiedu envoys to eliminate Zheng Ze, and even the Anguo general Huang Ji himself also seconded Liu Ji's views and opposed the forbidden army going out to fight.

In this regard, Zhao Zhi was extremely dissatisfied, and scolded Huang Zhi on the spot for having no courage and loyalty, and said angrily that he would never take you as the leading general, and then announced the dissolution of the dynasty.

Li Xun had lunch and was about to take a nap, but a eunuch hurriedly arrived, saying that Concubine Li Guifei had invited Li Xun into the palace to discuss matters.

As the eunuch entered the imperial city, he walked towards Changle Palace, but on the way, he met an official with his head bowed and hurriedly approaching.

Li Xun grabbed him, this person he knew, it was Wang Zhong, the head of the military department, seeing that he was holding some books and papers in his hand, he knew that he must have just come out of Emperor Zhao Zhi.

"Lord Wang, but you just came out of the emperor?"

Wang Zhong looked up and saw that it was Li Xun, so he nodded with a smile and said: "Your Majesty is discussing with your ministers, and ordered me to convey the recent Jiangnan Song Shu Zhangben, which is not just busy, and is preparing to leave the palace." ”

Li Xun is unofficial, it is said that he will not have any communication with Wang Zhong, but Li Xun likes to read history, is very interested in military affairs, often pulls Wang Zhong to ask questions and asks questions, at first Wang Zhong is also very impatient, love to ignore it, once Wang Zhong's family has an accident, no money turnover, Li Xun knows, very generously lent him five hundred taels of silver, this has been several years, Li Xun has never asked him to ask for a loan, Wang Zhong is very grateful for this, and his attitude towards Li Xun has changed a lot.

"Lord Wang, recently, the emperor has often convened the ministers of the political hall to discuss the matter, and it has been several hours to talk about it, but what happened?"

Li Xun asked softly, in the past month or so, Li Xun has been to his aunt a few times, and during the verbal conversation, he learned that Zhao Zhi seems to be in a very bad mood recently, and he is also very busy, and he has not gone to her once for several days, Li Xun guessed that something big must have happened in the DPRK.

Wang Zhong thought about it, this matter is not a secret, and it is okay to say it to Li Xun, so he whispered: "There is a big incident in Jiangnan, and the imperial court is afraid that it will use troops against it." ”

Li Xun became interested: "Which festival is making trouble?" ”

Wang Zhong said: "Yingzhou Jiedu envoy intercepted Jiangnan taxes, His Majesty wanted to send a forbidden army to quell the chaos, but was opposed by many ministers, and even the ministers of the political hall also had different opinions. ”

Li Xun said with a smile: "There are dozens of festivals in various places, and no one will not make trouble one day?" I've never seen the emperor care so much about it before! ”

"This time is different, the stability of Jiangnan Province is related to the foundation of the country, how can Your Majesty allow others to get involved?"

Wang Zhong shook his head and said, "I can't talk to you anymore, I have to rush back to the military headquarters, and there are still many things waiting for me to do!" ”

"Lord Wang, go slowly! There is time for you to drink. ”

Li Xun nodded and said with a smile.

Wang Zhong left, looking at his departing back, Li Xun suddenly thought, is it related to his aunt's invitation to enter the palace at this time?