Early in the morning, at the regular morning meeting, Zheng Fei announced the appointment of Pang Wanchun as an inspection envoy to inspect the important military and political affairs of all parties on his behalf, and to fight against gangsters.

At the same time, Zheng Fei also deliberately instructed Pang Wanchun in front of everyone that in order to find out more objectively the various problems existing in various places and not give local officials the opportunity to cheat, he was not allowed to fight in a big battle on this trip, and only allowed to take a small number of personnel in civilian clothes to carry out secret operations.

Pang Wanchun immediately took the order to go, and in the afternoon of the same day, Pang Wanchun led more than a dozen carefully selected good men to leave Jiangning Mansion in plain clothes, of course, all this is to hide people's eyes, their real purpose is to enter the Song Realm unknowingly, and then go to Shizhou City on Hedong Road.

However, although the excuse is an excuse, but from top to bottom I believe it, and soon, the news that Pang Wanchun is going to inspect various places on behalf of the commander spreads all over the place, and for a while, officials from all over the country have begun to make intense preparations, and if there is no problem in all aspects, they will strive for perfection, and some problems will be solved in a hurry, and I am afraid that Pang Wanchun will suddenly appear at his gate one day.

Zheng Fei knows these situations very well, and in an authoritarian society, this is something that cannot be avoided. In fact, there is no need for Pang Wanchun to investigate, just relying on the investigation bureau and the "shadow" can grasp the first-hand activity information of officials in various places, who has done anything good or bad in various places, or whether there is any violation of discipline and law, etc., which is also an important reference for Zheng Fei to evaluate officials in various places.

Officials who are upright, law-abiding, and talented can be quickly discovered and promoted, and officials who violate law and discipline can also be punished as soon as possible.

However, Zheng Fei will not go to the extreme of punishing officials who make mistakes and commit crimes, as Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, it is said that Zhu Yuanzhang's family members died because of corrupt officials, so Zhu Yuanzhang hated corrupt officials to the extreme, and when he founded the country, he stipulated that as long as officials dared to embezzle more than 60 taels of silver, they would be executed! How much is 60 taels? It is now about 600 yuan, and the method of execution is also very domineering, that is, to skin it alive, and if you embezzle 600 yuan, you have to be skinned alive, and after peeling it, the skin is stuffed with grass and placed on the court. At that time, every county had a skinning place called the Pichang Temple. It is said that officials were frightened when they passed by, and it is also recorded that some of the timid people fainted on the spot.

At the same time, in addition to peeling the skin, Zhu Yuanzhang seems to feel that it is not enough, and has invented more punishments specifically for corrupt officials, such as using open fire to burn, and the hot inside and out bloom. Another example is the iron brush that bathes and rubs the ashes for corrupt officials, scrubs and scrubs, and the flesh and blood of the direct wash are blurred, which is unbearable. How many corrupt officials did Zhu Yuanzhang kill in his life? According to incomplete statistics, it should be between 100,000 and 150,000, and of course, many of them must have died unjustly or as a result of the incident.

To tell the truth, the common people must agree with Zhu Yuanzhang very much, can the common people not hate the corrupt officials who suck the people's fat and ointment and trample on social fairness? Including Zheng Fei also agreed in his heart. But let him do it, but he couldn't do it, because the facts have been verified, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who can be called a nightmare for corrupt officials, still failed to end corruption in the end. Rot, he killed a batch and came again, and if he killed another batch, he would come again, and the butcher's knife was broken until the blade was broken, and there were still corrupt officials who could not be killed. In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang himself was also very confused.

Why is that? Some people say that Zhu Yuanzhang did not practice democracy, but democracy only appeared hundreds of years after Zhu Yuanzhang's death. And Zhu Yuanzhang has indeed been democratic, he stipulates that as long as the people find that officials are corrupt. If you act corrupt, you can arrest the officials and send them to Beijing to punish the crime, and if anyone dares to stop them along the way, those who stop them will also be executed.

Zheng Fei believes that the reason is because Zhu Yuanzhang ignored a very important aspect, he simply wanted to eliminate corrupt officials physically, but did not think about why officials became corrupt officials so easily, even in the face of cruel punishments, they had to continue to be corrupt one after another?

There are two reasons, first, Zhu Yuanzhang is extremely harsh on officials, and his salary is extremely low, like the Qing official Hai Rui, who was the right Jindu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate when he died, this is a very high official, and it is now equivalent to the ministerial level, but after he died of illness, his colleague Wang Yongji went to his home, rummaged through the cabinets, and only found a dozen taels of silver, and the expenses for the funeral had to be made up by friends, which shows that he is indeed poor, and he is so poor that people are awe-inspired. Except for Qing officials like Hai Rui, who are strict with themselves, after all, there are a minority, most of the officials have a lot of money in their hands, but they have to eat chaff vegetables, and it is estimated that no one can stand the temptation.

Second, Zhu Yuanzhang's background is poor people, and most of his subordinates are from poor people, and because of the cruel rule and enslavement of the Han people in the Yuan Dynasty for more than 100 years, the moral system formed by the Han people for thousands of years has almost completely destroyed. Don't underestimate the role of morality, after all, the law can only stop people from committing crimes, but it cannot stop people from having the idea of committing crimes in their hearts. Morality, on the other hand, can at least make many people consciously develop self-control over crime in their hearts.

In this case, it is obvious that the general level of officials appointed by Zhu Yuanzhang is relatively low, and the officials are selfish, and their own money is not enough to spend, so it is not surprising that they think of ways to embezzle.

Zhu Yuanzhang's lesson has a very important reference value for Zheng Fei, first of all, he proved that it is useless to rely only on bloody iron fist to control corruption, and there is no one who abides by morality and self-discipline from the bottom of his heart, and only relying on external constraints and despising the role of morality cannot fundamentally eliminate corruption. Morality is not just a matter for a few, but a principle that all should follow. Only by attaining the broad moral requirements that enable people to exercise self-discipline on the one hand, and on the other hand, are also the most powerful supervision by public opinion, and only by adding laws, regulations, disciplines, systems, and so on, can the phenomenon of corruption be truly curbed. And the situation of Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates is somewhat similar to the actual situation of the Heavenly Dao Army, what is the foundation and main body of the Heavenly Dao Army? It is the two major "bandit" groups of Liangshan heroes and Qishan heroes, although there are many talented people who have learned from the past and the present, but most of them are born in poor people's families, except for the righteousness of buddies, the level of knowledge and morality is not high, and compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates, they are not necessarily strong. This alerts Zheng Fei to pay attention to the cultivation of these people in terms of ideology and morality, so as to avoid Zhu Yuanzhang's mistakes.

Secondly, he proved that it is not good to be too mean to officials, but it is unrealistic to eliminate corruption just by improving the treatment of officials, an example is close at hand, that is, the Great Song Dynasty, the Great Song Dynasty can be said to be very preferential treatment to officials, and the salary is extremely high, but the corruption problem of the Great Song Dynasty is also extremely serious!

Therefore, Zheng Fei adopted the idea of "three knives" going hand in hand to combat corruption from the very beginning. First, it is an ironclad discipline and the promulgation of military regulations and military laws to strictly administer the army. The second is the higher salary, the treatment of the Heavenly Dao Army from top to bottom far exceeds that of the Great Song Dynasty, and the high salary is implemented. Maintain integrity. The third is to vigorously promote moral education and teach generals to be loyal to the country, the people, the Heavenly Army, and of course, to Zheng Fei. This is also one of the reasons why Zheng Fei vigorously promotes free education among the people under his rule, in addition to brainwashing the people, it is indeed to improve the comprehensive moral quality of the people.

Facts have proved that Zheng Fei's thinking is correct, and most of the generals and officials of the Tiandao Army have been able to maintain an honest and honest attitude, and there have been few major and bad violations of law and discipline.

But it must also be admitted that the lesser degree of greed. Corruption also occurs from time to time, Zheng Fei has adopted a more tolerant attitude towards this, no one is perfect, the Heavenly Dao Army and officials from all over the country are also people, and people will have greed and selfishness, which is unavoidable, especially most people have just gotten rid of their illiteracy, and have been affected for a long time by the bad social atmosphere of corruption in the Great Song Dynasty, in fact, it is already very good to be able to do this step today, Zheng Fei also allows them to make mistakes to a certain extent, of course, as long as they don't go too far. Because Zheng Fei clearly knows that the complete eradication of corruption and corruption is by no means something that can be rushed in a short period of time, and it is impossible to do it even in his own life, it will be a long-term and long process, however, Zheng Fei believes that as long as he can persist in this line of thinking, even if he cannot completely eliminate corruption, he will be able to bring a society that is infinitely close to the ideal!

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Pang Wanchun and the others have already set off, Zheng Fei can only wait patiently now, speaking of which, Zheng Fei is now waiting for the result in addition to Yue Fei's matter.

One is that Zong Ze and the two of them have not returned from Jingdong Road, and they are still waiting for their final choice, and the two of them have an important role in their next actions against the Great Song Dynasty, especially the Seed Master Dao, among the hundreds of thousands of troops left in the Great Song Dynasty, the most feared is the Northwest Forbidden Army, the Northwest Forbidden Army still has more than 200,000 troops, and it also has quite strong combat effectiveness. With his help, both fighting the Northwest Army and breaking the fighting spirit of the Northwest Army played an important role.

The other is that the "Qingjun side" plan has been implemented for several months, and the specific effect is still unknown, but what surprised Zheng Fei the most was that the Great Song side had not reacted at all so far, and could only see the Song army along the battle line nervously on guard, and there was nothing else. Even if the emperor and his ministers finally see their true nature clearly through this scene between themselves and Zhu Wu, and they will no longer take the initiative to seek peace with him stupidly, the emperor should also care about the life and death of his son, right? Even if it is just to send a messenger to ask Zhao Kai about his life and death, it is like a thing, but what is extremely surprising is that the emperor seems to have completely forgotten that his son is in his hands, and Zhao Kai is his favorite son! Could it be that ...... news of the "Qing Jun's side" reached Tokyo, the emperor and those ministers really thought that Zhao Kai had really completely betrayed the Great Song Dynasty and the emperor, and was ready to take himself to help him seize power? Their IQ shouldn't be that low, right......?

Zheng Fei was puzzled, but he didn't take this matter to heart completely, he had already made up his mind, and when Pang Wanchun brought Yue Fei back, at that time, the New Heavenly Dao Army would have completed its rest, and he would officially move westward, no matter what Song Ting's reaction was, it would be useless, and all he could do now was to use this last bit of time to make all preparations for the next war!

But Zheng Fei didn't expect that the day after Pang Wanchun's departure, he received a message that Da Song actually sent someone! At the moment, he is waiting at the border of Jingbei Road.

Zheng Fei couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the news, Da Song was really able to calm down, and he actually sent someone now, but they also came just in time, they came here for nothing more than two things, one is to negotiate peace, and the other is to ask for the return of Zhao Kai, no matter which one it is, this battle cannot be fought for the time being, which can just facilitate Pang Wanchun's actions.

Zheng Fei immediately ordered to let those envoys of the Great Song Dynasty in, a few days later, those envoys of the Great Song Dynasty arrived in Jiangning Mansion, Zheng Fei sent Wu Yong to meet them, and soon Wu Yong came back to report that the envoy of the Great Song Dynasty was Tang Ke, the servant of the household department, Tang Ke really came for Zhao Kai, he asked Zheng Fei to make conditions, how to return Zhao Kai and a cadre of captured generals and officials.

And to Zheng Fei's great surprise, Wu Yong replied half-jokingly and half-seriously, he said that King Yun's status is noble, and it is not an exaggeration to change a golden mountain, but with the current financial resources of your Song Kingdom, don't say a golden mountain, even half of it is estimated that you can't take it out, so let's suffer a loss, and use your Jinghu North Road, Jinghu South Road, Guangnan Road and Guangnan East Road as an exchange condition.

In fact, the main purpose of Wu Yong's sentence is to try the bottom line of the Great Song Dynasty, for such a condition, it is impossible for the Great Song Dynasty to agree, and if he agrees, it is equivalent to completely giving the entire south to the Heavenly Dao Army, and the Great Song Dynasty will completely lose the last grain-rich area, and the consequences for the Great Song Dynasty will be devastating!

But what is unexpected is that Tang Ke only hesitated for a moment and said, although the emperor cherishes King Yun very much and is willing to pay any price for King Yun, but the price you want us to cede the four roads is too great, even if the emperor agrees, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty and the whole world will not agree, so we can only ...... at most Ceded two of them.

They actually agreed?! Even if there were only two ways, the point was that they agreed!

Take one Zhao Kai in exchange for two roads, to be honest, this is a very cost-effective deal that cannot be refused! Winning these two ways in vain will not only avoid the sacrifices made by countless soldiers to capture them, but also further arouse the dissatisfaction of the people of the Song Realm with the Song Dynasty and further weaken the strength of the Song State!

But Zheng Fei felt that things were not so simple, if the emperor was really willing to pay such a big price, he would have come to negotiate from the beginning, why wait until now? Don't...... Is it because Song Ting has discovered the serious consequences of the "Qingjun side", so he wants Zhao Kai back at any cost, so that his "Qingjun side" plan is aborted halfway?

Zheng Fei consulted with Zhu Wu, Wu Yong and others, and everyone felt that the latter was the most likely, and the "Qingjun side" was first-class and would inevitably have a huge impact on the image of the Heavenly Dao Army, but having said that, why should the "Qingjun side" be implemented? Isn't it for the convenience of attacking cities and plundering land? It is unknown whether the "Qing Jun side" can succeed, and now they are willing to exchange real land, and it can also directly hit the image of the Song Dynasty, which is more direct and effective, it is self-evident.

And there is another point, this is just the beginning of Tang Ke revealed the bottom line of the Great Song Dynasty, if the in-depth negotiations continue, can Zhao Kai be exchanged for more benefits?

Zheng Fei couldn't help but be moved, and he immediately asked Wu Yong to negotiate with Tang Ke on the specific details!

This talk was three days, and three days later, Wu Yong and Tang Ke basically negotiated a general framework, the Tiandao Army returned dozens of large and small generals and officials such as Zhao Kai, Chongshi Dao, and Zong Ze of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Great Song Dynasty ceded Jinghu South Road, Jinghu North Road, and Guangnan East Road to the Tiandao Army.

Such a result is simply perfect for Zheng Fei!

However, Tang Ke said that he was just a small household servant, and he couldn't make a decision on such a big matter, so he wanted to go back to ask the court for instructions and wait for the court's reply. Zheng Fei agreed, of course, and then sent someone to escort Tang Ke all the way back to the Song Realm.

Everything seems to be going very smoothly, it can be done in vain without much effort, Zheng Fei and everyone are very happy, of course, Zheng Fei still maintains a calm, he understands that the more beautiful things look on the surface, there is often a conspiracy hidden behind it, and it is not ruled out that this is what the Great Song Dynasty is doing, but even if it is true, Zheng Fei is not afraid, with the strength of the Great Song Dynasty now, what can he do even if he is a troublemaker? If this matter is negotiated, the benefits are self-evident, even if it can't be negotiated, it doesn't matter, it's a big deal to continue to attack them according to the original plan, it's just a matter of waiting a few more days, just rely on these days What earth-shaking changes can happen in the Great Song Dynasty? Unless the group of warlocks raised by the emperor can really have the ability to scatter beans into soldiers and recruit heavenly soldiers!

Zheng Fei has such confident capital, this is strength!

But no one expected that on the third day after Tang Ke left, an urgent military message from Hua Rong completely shocked Zheng Fei and the others!

Hua Rong said in the letter that the last time the commander wanted to marry Yelu Caijie in a reasonable way, he also clearly cheated the Great Song Dynasty once, saying that the Great Song Dynasty was ready to ask the Liao State to send troops to assist him in attacking the Heavenly Dao Army at the cost of cutting the land, but no one expected that the blind cat met the dead mouse in that framed out of nothing, and it really became a fact!

Not long after Yelu Caijie left the Liao State, the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty suddenly arrived in the Liao State and proposed to the Emperor of the Liao State a request to exchange a large area of land bordering the Liao State on the three roads of Hebei in exchange for the Liao army's 200,000 troops to help them attack the Tiandao army!

This incident caused a great shock in the government and opposition of the Liao State, and the Liao court was immediately divided into two factions, one faction resolutely opposed the request of the Song State, believing that the Song State had betrayed the covenant and could no longer be trusted! This faction is dominated by Yan Wang Yeluchun and others; The other faction was led by Xiao Fengxian, who agreed to accept the conditions of the Song State, believing that this move would not only allow them to obtain a large piece of land and make up for the losses in the war with the Jin, but also use this to re-sign a stronger alliance with the Song State. Emperor Liao was moved, he agreed to Song State's request, and ordered Yeluchun to prepare to send 200,000 troops to fight in Song at any time!

Yeluchun tried hard to admonish but had no effect, he turned gray almost overnight, he asked Hua Rong to report the situation to Zheng Fei immediately, and asked Hua Rong and the others to evacuate Liao immediately!

Zheng Fei was completely stunned, how could this be?! If all this is true, the situation in the world has suddenly changed dramatically!

And also...... Is this the real purpose of the Song Kingdom?!

However, the blow did not stop there, and immediately after, Uncle Zhang's secret letter also arrived, and it dealt a heavy blow to Zheng Fei's ...... again!