Xue Bi and the leader of the secret spy department entered the palace with the little eunuch, and they couldn't help but be surprised when they peeked at each other while walking.

It's not that the two of them were deceived and scared by the trick here, the emperor is indeed here, and they are shocked by the image of the emperor they see.

Before leaving Beijing, the emperor had recovered from the blow and panic caused by the summer national disaster, and under the guidance of Tao Daxian, he looked good and was in good spirits. But only a few days have passed, and when I see the emperor again, the emperor is actually haggard like this, with a sallow complexion, dark eye circles, and big bags under his eyes, obviously not sleeping well and not resting properly.

What's going on?

What happened to make the emperor like this?

It doesn't look like it's caused by illness, right?

After the two of them arrived at the palace, they always felt that something was wrong, and at this moment, when they saw the bad image of the emperor, they felt that something serious must have happened.

Don't dare to peek more.

The two came to the emperor ten meters away from the eunuch in the hall, and both bowed to the ground under the signal of the eunuch in the hall, and bowed three times and shouted: "Weichen to see the saint, may my lord have a long life." ”

Zhao Ji was not as terrible as the irritable ferocity that the two of them had a premonition, he was very easy-going, and immediately said slowly: "Get up." ”

He looked at the two of them, "You are in a hurry to see me when you come back from your mission." So what is the situation of this trip? How did Liang Shan defeat the thieves? ”

Xue Bi understood what the emperor wanted to know and was most worried about, so he said succinctly and immediately: "Return to the Holy Lord." Yangsan is not a problem. There is not much armed force there. Weichen also appeased Liang Shan. ”

Suddenly, both of them saw that the emperor's face was actually tight, and their expressions suddenly relaxed, and their eyes softened a lot, and they seemed to be greatly relieved.

Could it be that the reason why the emperor is so haggard is because of what terrible things have happened to the Cangzhao family?

The two of them muttered in their hearts, they didn't know anything about what happened in the court during this time, and they didn't even know anything, they fell into passivity, they couldn't help but secretly complain, and their hanging hearts became more and more worried.

Xue Bi had the intention to ease the tense relationship between the imperial court and the Cangzhao family, hoping that the emperor could change his ruthless attitude towards Zhao Gonglian, and stop holding the mind of using the last bit of value of the family and then turning his face to eradicate it, forcing the Cangzhao people to be even more angry and iron-hearted, kidnapping Cangzhao and embarking on the bad consequences of confrontation with the imperial court or even direct rebellion.

Therefore, he has deliberately weakened the arrogant and almost hostile tough attitude of the Liangshan people towards the surrounding officials and the Qin mission team as much as possible, and tried to say it as lightly as possible.

But the emperor was very smart, how could he hear the bad attitude of the people of Liangshan towards the court and resentment, and he could hear that Liangshan was ready to turn against the court at any time.

The two thought that the emperor would be furious when he knew this, and he would reprimand the Cangzhao family for being ungrateful, and such a rebellious disobedience was a deliberate attempt to rebel, and they would immediately convene important ministers to discuss the strategy of exterminating Liangshan and immediately taking down Zhao Gonglian's family and questioning the guilt, and then there was a series of relevant cases of the holy decree against the Cangzhao family and the emergency transfer of soldiers and horses. What the two of them were afraid of was this result, and they had already carefully prepared reasons to explain to Liang Shan and appease the emperor for a while.

Who knows, the emperor sat behind the imperial case and listened quietly, although his brows furrowed from time to time, and his face flashed with anger, but he did not do what the two expected.

The two of them were very strange and incomprehensible.

It stands to reason that this should never be the case.

The Holy Emperor can't tolerate the slightest provocation from his subjects, and the slightest bit of it may attract thunder and lightning, and it will never recover, not to mention Liang Shan's direct slap in the face.

Xue Bi is not a political talent, and his other talents are not outstanding, but he has extraordinary acumen and flexibility.

He felt that the emperor was acting like this, or he was not so good at cultivating a high degree of bearing, or he was confident about cleaning up the vicissitudes and did not need to be angry and nervous to do anything.

He felt more keenly that the emperor's mentality seemed to be a kind of helplessness for the Cangzhao family.

What should be done to the family that has fallen on the border, the emperor is hesitating and wandering, it should not be soft-hearted, but should be jealous or even afraid. This kind of mentality is reflected in the emotion is a kind of hesitation and helplessness at a loss, not that he is not angry with the Cangzhao family, but that he is squeezed into a certain dilemma, helpless.

Xue Bi didn't know what happened to Cangzhao, but he judged that it was impossible for the Cangzhao family to have antagonized or even rebelled against the imperial court during this time, otherwise the emperor would not still care so much about Liangshan's attitude towards the imperial court and wonder whether Liangshan had military readiness. Besides, it is impossible not to hear about such a major event on the road.

It must be the Cangzhao family, or the extremely smart Marquis Wen Cheng, who has made some move to seize the weakness of the imperial court, so that the imperial court, including the emperor, has to consider retreating and compromising no matter how angry he is.

He was secretly happy.

That's it.

As long as the emperor in fact ceased to be arrogant and foolish and gradually killed others, then it was possible for the relationship between the two sides to ease into harmony. If Cangzhao does not abandon the imperial court, the Great Song Dynasty will not fall so easily, at least not so quickly. There is always hope for a comeback.

As a result, Xue Bi boldly emphasized that the people of Liangshan are essentially just farmers who like to live a leisurely life, fundamentally speaking, they have no ambition and no objections, and they don't want to be rebels.

It's just that the relationship between Liangshan and the surrounding government is indeed quite tense, and it is already a de facto hostility and antagonism, and with a little spark, the two sides may break out into a life-and-death war; Liangshan's situation is very bad, and he is very angry at the court's attitude towards the Cangzhao family, thinking that it is too unfair, and his heart is cold, and he wants to tie up the main family and can no longer blindly serve the imperial court, coupled with the high debt that is out of breath, the rich, happy and peaceful days of Liangshan people are gone, everyone has a strong sense of existential crisis, and everyone's heart is full of anger.

He vaguely warned the emperor that people were not stupid, even the small people under Cangzhao had recognized the true face of the imperial court, not to mention a political wizard like Wen Chenghou, who was extremely intelligent and known for his foresight. Cangzhao's subordinates are unwilling to be loyal to you, they are kidnapping and supporting the head of the family to break away from the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty, no longer serving the Great Song Dynasty, and are ready to deal with the court at any time to turn their faces ruthlessly, everyone is not afraid of death, and they are not afraid of a battle with the court tearing their faces, and they may not be able to deal with you, so you, the emperor, will stop dreaming and playing with others.

After saying this, the report he was responsible for had actually been completed, and it was appropriate for the head of the secret spy department to report to the emperor alone.

Emperor Zhao Ji was really smart, he understood what Xue Bi meant, and the annoyance on his face became stronger, but he still didn't get angry, but returned to the original question, and immediately asked: "Since Liangshan doesn't have a huge army, why did they exterminate the ten thousand thieves on Peach Blossom Mountain in one fell swoop?" ”

Xue Bi said that this was a secret that could not be humanized to outsiders, and asked the emperor to retreat.

The emperor did not refuse, and waved away the eunuchs and palace maids who accompanied him, but obviously he did not trust Xue Bi and the others who sent Liangshan, and immediately a person in black clothes came out of nowhere and quietly stood beside the emperor to guard the two.

This person covered his face, his face was blurred, but he had no beard, and he should be an emperor's personal guard with extraordinary martial arts.

Xue Bi didn't care, took out the cloth bag from his sleeve, held it with both hands, and said, "Everything is in this thing." ”

Under his explanation, the man in black personally cut the iron chain with a vise, and the emperor understood the key to the victory of the Liangshan people, and nodded obviously much easier.

"Shengshang, Liangshan gave the minister the top secret weapon to defend Shuibo against the large-scale invasion of Liangshan by foreign thieves with wooden platoons, and brought it back to the capital for the Shengshang to know, which shows that the people of Liangshan do not want to be enemies of the imperial court. At least they still thought that the imperial court could be fair to Liangshan, and they still had some hope for His Majesty. ”

This is obviously what Zhao Ji likes to hear, and there is a trace of laughter on his face, and then he praised Xue Bi Zhongjun for his patriotism and courage to do things, and he can also do things, and he will be promoted from seven to six grades, giving him a thousand pieces of money, fifty horses of cloth, a number of stones of grain, and a case of wine, saying that Xue Qing has worked hard and meritorious, and he will go home first to rest and rest, and he does not have to rush to go on a bad trip, and it is not too late to do things after resting. He also said that if he didn't like to be an envoy, he would discuss it with the ministers to see where there was a suitable vacancy and then make specific arrangements.

This is a great reward, and it is also to send Xue Bi away.

Xue Bi thanked Long En, and immediately left the palace that made him tremble and feel depressed, leaving the head of the secret spy department to follow the emperor's questioning.

did not suffer the catastrophe of the top, and was promoted and rewarded, which can be regarded as a preliminary escape from the dangerous consequences of Liangshan's errand, Xue Bi left the palace, but he did not feel relaxed, and he was still worried.

The Secret Spy Division is the Emperor's domestic slave.

The emperor couldn't hide the sensitive issues of the house slaves when he questioned them, and just asked Liang Shan whether there were any rebel forces, whether the Cangzhao family wanted to rebel, and so on. The leader who stayed behind to report alone was under the fierce pressure of the emperor who revealed his true face, hovering on the line of death, more nervous, and more uncomfortable.

But the long-experienced and dissenting leader still resisted the vast ferocious might, on the surface he was sincerely afraid, but his heart was actually surging with that strange energy, he was very excited and calm, he was not stupid, and it was impossible for a fool to be a good agent, Xue Bi could be keenly aware of something, and he could also feel the subtle changes in the emperor's attitude towards Cangzhao, and told the emperor how Liangshan abused Tian Shizhong, the prefect of Dongchang Prefecture, and how the emperor's cronies and generals and the spies in charge of spying on Liangshan died in Liangshan's trap.

Faced with the strange demeanor of the emperor mixed with many unknown emotions in his anger, he plucked up the courage to explain tentatively: "Your Majesty, the government around Liangshan has not participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Taohua Mountain bandits at all. The thieves came to Liangshanbo smoothly from Qingzhou, and they were not hindered by the government along the way. This is understandable. After all, at that time, pirates were rampant, a large number of officers and soldiers from all over the country defected, and the morale of the army collapsed. However, the Peach Blossom Mountain thieves were bandits who were killed after the encirclement and suppression of the Qingzhou Army, there were tens of thousands, and the uncle and nephew of the thief Zhu family were extremely brave and cunning. The officers and men along the way were not opponents and did not dare to fight, which is understandable. But the thieves didn't grow their forces along the way. As long as they can fight the ferocious elite who dare to fight, they don't want to add to the burden of the number of nomads and slow down the speed of the march. The thieves fought the plan of raiding Liangshan, and wanted to quickly defeat Liangshan as a new stronghold before the imperial court mobilized the army to encircle and suppress it, and by the way, they also killed the people of Liangshan to avenge the revenge of the family. ”

The government around Liangshan really used the results of Liangshan's bloody battle to falsely report the war achievements and lie. Zhao Ji confirmed the matter, and was a little annoyed by being deceived, but at this time, he didn't care about this aspect, he was more concerned about something else, and couldn't help but mix his doubts with curiosity, and looked at the leader and asked: "What is the hatred between the thief and Liang Shan that causes such hatred for Liang Shan?" “

The leader respectfully said, "Repay the saint, this is an old thing from a few years ago. ”

In order to help the government maintain law and order, that is, to maintain the business environment around Liangshan, a small but quite elite merchant guard team was formed. They inadvertently noticed that Zhujia Zhuang Ming in Dulonggang, Dongchang Prefecture, was a good citizen, and the landlord was actually a thief, opening a black shop nearby, pretending to be a robber in the distance, robbing and killing countless people, committing many crimes, and also accumulating a lot of money to purchase tens of thousands of fertile land, with a huge number of tenants, and the power became stronger and stronger, and there were thousands of backbone bandits alone, plus strict control of the well-trained Zhuang soldiers, there were no less than five or six thousand troops, and there were many soldiers and enough food, and they already had the potential to attack the city and seize the land and land to rebel and claim the king. The three sons of the Zhu family are called Sanjie, all of them are strong in martial arts, especially the third son Zhu Biao is the most powerful, good at shooting arrows with guns, and acting the most ferocious and arrogant, at that time, the local government did not dare to look at each other. It was precisely because Zhu Biao was acting more and more unscrupulously, and he didn't pay attention to the court and the law at all, so he showed his feet and let the people of Liangshan find out and report to the government. After the confirmation of Dongchang Mansion, it was decided to exterminate the Zhu family. Liang Shan actively participated and helped break Zhujiazhuang, and the hatred of destroying the family was born. But the three sons of the Zhu family were brave and cunning, and they broke out of the encirclement at that time, successfully escaped with dozens of their most powerful cronies, and fled to Qingzhou to fall into the grass, and the fire merged with Wang Lun, the head of the Peach Blossom Mountain thieves at that time, and occupied the cottage, and since then he has become the most arrogant and ferocious robber on the ground in Qingzhou, and has joined the wanted uncle Zhu Wannian, and respects Zhu Wannian as the boss. That wish Wannian civil and military all-rounder, martial arts and even more courage of ten thousand people, in his hometown once raided Tai'an County, killed the county official wanted by him and robbed him, and then defected to his nephew. Peach Blossom Mountain became more and more powerful and ferocious under his leadership. Their uncles and nephews are all rich landlords, their homes have been destroyed, and the free and nourishing days of pretending to be good people are gone, so they naturally hate the people who destroy their lives, but they can't help the government, so they regard Liangshan as a must-kill, and they are crazy to do evil and accumulate power in Qingzhou is to one day kill all the people of Liangshan, get rid of Zhao Yue, the second son of Cangzhao, and swallow the wealth of Liangshan. “

Zhao Ji nodded, his expression was very agreeable with this statement, but he didn't care about Liang Shan's merits and life or death, and asked: "What happened to the bandits reported by Tian Shizhong?" “

The leader sighed, and said in a gloomy voice: "Speaking of this, if you are humble and presumptuous, it may be called the shame of my Great Song Dynasty." “

Zhao Ji frowned, his face was displeased, but the leader did not flinch, and continued to report according to the pre-calculation.

"It's a bit wrongful to say that Dongchang Mansion didn't suppress bandits, but it's not necessarily true."

"The Peach Blossom Mountain thieves easily arrived at Deliang Shanbo and were stationed in the jurisdiction of Dongchang Mansion. The officers and soldiers around Liangshan were mainly border troops who had been dismissed from Cangbei, and they defected very little, and they were the most complete and regular army in Shandong at that time, and they were not without the strength to fight against the thieves who came in. However, Dongchang Mansion ignored the thieves in the territory and connived at the thieves to calmly cut down trees and make a large number of wooden rafts to attack Liangshan. “

The leader knew in his heart that the emperor was also eager to destroy the last bit of power foundation of the Cangzhao family with the help of thieves, so he said: "This is nothing. ”

"The main force of thieves and robbers is tens of thousands of people under the leadership of Zhu Wannian and Zhu Long's family and son, Zhu Long, and they are slaughtered into Liangshanbo by wooden platoons, leaving only one or two thousand thieves in the camp on the shore, led by Zhu Hu and Zhu Biao, who are left behind to retreat and money, food and materials. At this time, Dongchang Mansion took action, and sent more than 3,000 carefully selected elite soldiers and horses to rob the dirt accumulated by the robbers in Taohuashan for several years, and by the way, they could also make some merit for killing thieves, but the funny and sad thing is that they only encountered an ambush of about 500 bandits in the woods not too far from Liangshanbo, and were shot with a bow and arrow and fled in a hurry. Wang Qingxu, the lord of Dongchang Mansion, was in a hurry to lead the team because he was eager to grab money, reckless, and was blocked by his subordinates in the forest road when he encountered a surprise attack, and could not turn around and escape in time. As soon as he died, the Dongchang army became more and more chaotic, and was killed by hundreds of thieves and horsemen, and the army completely collapsed, and was chased and killed all over the field. The money was not robbed, and the thief was not killed, but a large number of weapons and equipment were sent to the thief, which made the robber's arrogance more and more arrogant. ”

"The people of Liangshan broke the wooden raft with a vice, easily drowned all the tens of thousands of thieves in the water, and killed the thieves Zhu Wannian and Zhu Long who were on the boat in a bloody battle that cost hundreds of lives, successfully dismantled the mountain extermination crisis, and scared away the thieves on the shore, but their people reconnoitred all this very clearly, and their hatred and hatred for the officers and soldiers of Tian Governor and Dongchang Mansion can be imagined."

Zhao Ji's expression was uncertain, and he didn't know what he was thinking, so he hummed after a long time, "You go on." ”

"The head of the second thief has been brought back. The people of Liangshan used lime to store it for possible inspection by the imperial court, and the faces of the two thieves were still clearly recognizable, which was indeed true. There is no pretense in this matter. To die is to die. If you are not dead, you are not dead, and if such a prominent and arrogant thief escapes, he will show his face again elsewhere to do evil. “

Zhao Ji didn't squeak, but he was also a little happy that the two strong thieves who had disturbed the Great Song Dynasty for a long time finally died, nodded slightly, and was satisfied with the leader's statement, and signaled to continue.

Naturally, the humble officials would not believe the statements of the Liangshan people, and after careful investigation, they saw the wood of the thieves and thieves in Liangshan, although it had been consumed a lot by the Liangshan people, but the rest were still piled up like hills, according to which it can be inferred that the thieves who attacked Liangshan at that time should not be less than 10,000 people. The corpses of the thieves were burned on the high ground in the middle of the water, and although the wind and water had flooded and there was not much left of the wreckage, the signs of the ground stained by the corpse oil and the unpleasant smell that would not dissipate quickly proved that this would only be the case if too many corpses had been burned. Moreover, because there were too many dead thieves, many of them fled into the reeds in a hurry at that time, and they died everywhere, and there were many people who sank to the bottom of the water. When the lowly ship was at anchor, he encountered a corpse floating from the bottom of the water. “

"Liangshan is hostile to the surrounding government, coupled with those various evil forces that are greedy for Liangshan's wealth, the situation is indeed extremely dangerous and difficult, the mountain is large and wide, Liangshan has limited manpower, and the defense is difficult, so it is natural to set up means in the mountains to prevent invasion, our people did not listen to Liangshan's prior warning and sneaked around to investigate, and it is not uncommon for accidents to occur."

Zhao Ji naturally didn't care about the fact that the generals and spies sent were so dead that only the leader in front of him was left.

What he cares about is whether Liang Shan dares to kill these people without authorization, and whether he has already made up his mind to go hostile with the imperial court.

Since Liangshan did not defend the Qincha team for serious inspection, and Qincha wanted to see wherever he wanted, someone would lead the way and look at wherever he wanted, Liangshan did not hide a secret of a large number of troops or anything, but because he was so down-and-out that he raised livestock and poultry to pay off his debts, and faced a serious survival crisis, he complained to the imperial court, which is nothing.

The main manpower on Liangshan is actually one or two thousand or even more deaf and dumb disabled people?!

Even with Zhao Ji's dignity, arrogance, selfishness, and shamelessness, he didn't feel a little blushing at the court's failure to do its duty to treat the poor special group of the disabled, and he couldn't help but feel Cangzhao's compassion and generosity.

But what can a deaf-mute person do?

It is only possible to herd and grow vegetables and do some menial and menial work within his ability to make do with it, and it is impossible to form a regular army that is brave and good at fighting, and no matter how many people there are, it is not a threat.

That's good.

Zhao Ji's ability to train ordinary people into elite soldiers who are not afraid of death is not an ordinary love for the Cangzhao family, but now it is not an ordinary fear.

Xue Bi didn't mention that Wan Qiao, Luo Ruji, and Zhang Gan did the affairs of the three of them, and they didn't hide it from the emperor, and they didn't appear in the Qin Mission.

The head of the Secret Spy Division didn't mention it at all.

It's not that the two of them want to use this matter as a handle to get something from Cai Jing, Bai Shizhong, and Zhang Bangchang.

In today's rotten situation, the little people are really like ants, and no matter how big the handle is, they can't threaten the status of the big guys.

They are not the Marquis of Wen Cheng, who has lost their power but their prestige and importance have not decreased, but they appear to be bigger and more powerful, and if they don't have the ability and qualifications, they will have to pay attention to and attach great importance to the court and the emperor.

If they didn't expose the emperor about this matter, they didn't dare to offend the forces of Cai Bai and Zhang and the terrifying forces like the heavenly net formed by the three parties secretly colluding with Liang Shicheng, a big yin person.

Especially Xue Bi didn't want to do anything at this time, he just wanted to ease the tension with the three parties that would inevitably form because he didn't vigorously defend the three thieves in Liangshan, and wanted to exchange for some opportunities to protect himself as much as possible.

This is the sadness of the little people who have no power, no power, no influence, and no great use for state affairs.

After Xue Bi left the palace, he wanted to immediately go to Bai Shizhong to report and express his position and helplessness, and resolve some crises, but he was exhausted in the palace, and he really didn't have the energy to go to the Prime Minister's Mansion to fight with a powerful thief like Bai Shizhong, so he dragged his heavy steps and went home first to rest.

In addition, he was also anxious to inquire about what had happened recently that would make the emperor feel like an emperor.

Only when the information is comprehensive and targeted can we formulate a more thorough and effective response and self-protection strategy.

Unexpectedly, when the old family reported two things, Xue Bi, who had just sat down lazily, jumped up in shock, and the teacup he had just picked up in his hand fell to the ground.

The murderer is famous, and is respected by the officialdom as the internal minister and the great eunuch Liang Shicheng, who is known as the monstrous chief, actually died, or died violently.

The second thing that is even more amazing is that Zhao Gonglian didn't say it, this time he really quit his job, and he had abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown Zhaozhuang to farm.

If a person becomes a peasant without being a high-ranking official and has no power, the impact on his personal life can be imagined.

But no one expected that the result of a person's resignation could directly lead to the end of a dynasty.

The Great Song Dynasty, which had flourished for hundreds of years, is now facing collapse and collapse at any time.