The square in front of the Daqing Hall was already full of officials from the previous court, and the officials were in groups of three or five, all of them were talking in a low voice about today's court meeting, according to the practice of the court meeting, the supervision report of the military prison was officially issued yesterday, although it was only a simplified part, but the content inside still shocked the officials.

The serious lack of preparation for the war made the court officials worried, and many officials who originally supported the Northern Expedition also changed their minds, and if the Song army was defeated by the Liao army due to insufficient preparation, it would be a great shame for the Great Song Dynasty.

Although there were still many officials who supported the Northern Expedition, they no longer had the upper hand, especially after Cai Jing openly opposed the Northern Expedition, the officials of the Cai Jing group unanimously turned around and criticized the aggressive policy of the Northern Expedition.

As soon as Li Yanqing came to the square, he was called by Fan Zhixu, who was surrounded by about seven or eight people, all of whom were core personnel who opposed the Northern Expedition.

"Yanqing, let me introduce to you, these two are Scholar Sun and Scholar Yang, and they both share the same ambition as us."

Li Yanqing hurriedly saluted, "Yanqing see the two seniors!" ”

Scholar Sun's name is Sun Li, a middle-aged man with a goatee, he stroked his beard and smiled: "The future is terrifying! ”

Fan Zhixu waved his hand and said to Li Yanqing: "The time of the last dynasty is coming soon, I will make a long story short, the first item on the agenda today is to discuss the supervision report of the military prison center, which will be presided over by me, I want you to be responsible for elaborating, after all, eighty percent of the content of the report is the supervision of the Zhending Mansion, you have no problem!" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "The humble position is ready." ”

"That's good, in addition, you can also participate in the Northern Expedition debate, but it is best to be substantial, convincing, and the rhetoric can be intense, but you must pay attention to etiquette, you must grasp the proportion, especially not to attack the Son of Heaven or the first emperor, so as not to be impeached by the palace servant Yushi, if you are really not sure, then try to watch from the sidelines."

"Humble duty understands!"

At this moment, the Jingyang bell that was about to enter the hall rang, Fan Zhixu patted Li Yanqing on the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "If you put the state affairs and society first, don't care about your own honor and disgrace. ”

Li Yanqing was a little nervous in his heart, the call against the Northern Expedition in history was equally fierce, but in the end the opposition failed, can it change history this time?

The two teams of officials have lined up in a long line, and with the high shouts of the palace attendants, the procession has entered the main hall, Li Yanqing did not line up last today, but stood in the first place in the military prison center, followed by Li Hui and Jiang Ying, the three of them represented the military prison to attend the court meeting, and the position was relatively close to the front, and today is to discuss their report.

Fan Zhixu stood in the third place of Xiangguo, in front of Bai Shizhong and Wang Huang, he and Zhang Bangchang belonged to the deputy prime minister, and Zhao Kai, the king of Yun, also attended, he stood in the first place of the generals, and below him were Tong Guan, Gao Yu, Cao Ping, Gao Shen, Seed Master Dao and others.

At this time, Li Yanqing saw the crown prince Zhao Huan, his complexion was not very good, his face was pale, his eyes were very gloomy, he had lost a lot of weight compared to last time, and he could see that life was not good, his position was on the side of His Majesty Dan, lower than the Son of Heaven, but higher than the courtiers.

"His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!"

The guards shouted, and sixteen palace maids walked in from the side holding long-handled fans around the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji, and the hundred officials bowed down together, "See Your Majesty the Emperor, long live Your Majesty!" ”

Zhao Ji sat down on the dragon chair, waved his hand and said, "Everyone, Aiqing is free of courtesy!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The ministers stood up straight, Zhao Ji flipped through the monitoring report on the imperial case, and said slowly: "Today's convening of the provisional dynasty is mainly because I want to discuss the preparations for the Northern Expedition in Hebei with you Aiqing, and then specifically negotiate the general direction of the Northern Expedition, I hope that the imperial court can reach a consensus as soon as possible, and then invite Fan Xiangguo to preside!" ”

Generally speaking, the court meeting is a place for ministers to debate fiercely, and the Son of Heaven will not participate in the debate, nor will he speak easily, so Zhao Ji remained silent after saying the opening remarks, and Fan Zhixu presided over the elaboration of Hebei's preparations for war.

Fan Zhixu walked out of the court, saluted to Zhao Ji, the Son of Heaven, and said to everyone: "Entrusted by the Son of Heaven, the Military Prison Institute was divided into three teams to go to Hebei last month to monitor the state of military stockpiles, and the results of the supervision are shocking, especially the major warehouses in Zhending Mansion are the hardest hit areas, food shortages, ordnance is wasted, and many heavy siege weapons are rotten. ”

Fan Zhixu waved his hand, Li Yanqing walked out of the queue with a scroll in his hand, stepped forward to salute Zhao Ji, the Son of Heaven, and saluted to the hundred officials, then unfolded the scroll and said slowly: "I am the first of the three road supervision envoys, responsible for the supervision of Zhending Mansion, this time we stayed in Zhending Mansion for a total of 20 days, we supervised 29 of the 37 warehouses in Zhending Mansion, and the facts investigated are from the real warehouse inventory, and there are the signatures of the investigators and the head of the warehouse, I can be responsible for this, and I will use the five warehouses in Xingtang County to make a specific explanation for you. ”

Li Yanqing paused for a moment and looked at Fan Zhixu, Fan Zhixu motioned for him to continue, Li Yanqing took a deep breath and continued: "Xingtang County is the focus of our supervision, here are more than sixty percent of the various warehouses in Zhending Mansion, there are hundreds of various warehouses, we first look at the supervision of the fifth warehouse of military rations, the book records that the warehouse should have 11,000 stones of military rations, but the actual inventory is only 3,800 stones, not even 30 percent; Let's take a look at the real situation of the fourth warehouse of the bow and crossbow......."

Li Yanqing's description of one warehouse after another, the discussion in the court is getting louder and louder, Wang Hao saw that the situation was not good, and when Li Yanqing paused slightly, he immediately stood up and said: "We all know these situations, but what is the cause of this bad incident, I think this is the problem that more of us are concerned about!" ”

Wang Huang can't deny the fact that the accounts are seriously inconsistent, he can only make a fuss about the reasons and reduce Liang Fangping's culpability, otherwise, let Li Yanqing finish speaking, and finally it will become Liang Fangping's condemnation meeting.

Fan Zhixu was very dissatisfied, and he said coldly: "Why is Wang Xiangguo so anxious that he can't let Li Yushi finish the report?" ”

"We have seen the briefing yesterday about what Li Yushi said, and we have a general understanding, so there is no need to repeat it, we are more concerned about the reasons for this phenomenon, and I hope Li Yushi can focus on this aspect."

Wang Hao grasped the weakness of the military prison this inspection, and they did not have so much time to investigate the reasons in detail, so they could only reveal the actual situation, but the real reasons could not be implemented one by one.

Of course, Li Yanqing also knew that Wang Hao would start from the reason, and he already had a countermeasure, so he simply said calmly: "The reasons for this are very complicated, and all warehouse directors can say a lot of reasons, such as historical reasons, which have been the case for decades, and for example, the accounting is not timely, the loss of grain is too large, and there is no accounting after the destruction of the weapon, etc., but there is no reason for them to steal and sell privately, embezzlement and stolen goods, and they are as innocent as snow, does Wang Xiangguo recognize these reasons?" ”

Wang Hao smiled gloomily, "Of course I don't believe it, didn't Li Yushi investigate the reason carefully?" ”

Li Yanqing shook his head, "My group of six people spent twelve days to check one hundred and forty-five warehouses, an average of twelve per day, from dawn in the morning to late at night, we don't have time to trace the real reasons for the discrepancy between the accounts, I think these should be left to the special supervision of the imperial history to trace the reasons and clarify the responsibility." ”

At this time, Tong Guan suddenly understood, if the cause is fully investigated, it will take at least two or three years, then it will be a fart in the Northern Expedition! He was in a great hurry, and the top priority now was to cut through the chaos quickly, immediately end the supervision of military resources, and shift the focus to the Northern Expedition.

Tong Guan couldn't help but secretly scolded Wang Huang for being confused, and fell into the trap of the other party for the sake of Liang Fangping's benefit.

He immediately stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, please let Rong Weichen say a word!" ”

Zhao Ji nodded, "Captain Tong, please speak!" ”

Tong Guan walked out of the queue and said to everyone: "I have been an envoy in Hebei, and I have a better understanding of the situation in Hebei, the supervision problem of the military prison is very serious, and I am deeply saddened, there is a point in the historical reason, but it is by no means so serious, there must be a problem with self-theft in prison, but it is not so common, after all, the system of the imperial court is still there, I think the real problem is still in the false report, I think it is the Hebei transfer that makes Liang Fangping eager to show his merits to the imperial court and deceive, The imperial court mistakenly thought that Hebei had completed the military war preparations, and the consequences were very serious, which directly affected the imperial court's Northern Expedition plan, which was an extremely serious dereliction of duty, and it was not enough to warn future generations if it was not severely punished. ”

Gao Yu also came out and said: "Your Majesty, Taiwei Tong is right, no matter what the reason is found in the end, Liang Fangping's dereliction of duty and dereliction of duty is inevitable, and I implore Your Majesty to severely punish Liang Fangping." ”

The ministers came out one after another to demand that Liang Fangping be severely punished, and Zhao Ji glanced at Wang Huang, "What about Wang Xiangguo's opinion?" ”

At this time, Wang Hao had already understood Tong Guan's intentions, not to do too much picketing on the issue of military funds, and to deal with this matter quickly before he could talk about the Northern Expedition.

"The minister supports Mrs. Tong, and Liang Fangping should be severely punished!"

"What about Fan Xiangguo's opinion?" Zhao Ji's eyes fell on Fan Zhixu again, and Fan Zhixu also nodded and said: "There are major losses in Hebei, Liang Fangping is hard to escape, and he should be severely punished!" ”

"Good! Since all Aiqing have the same opinion, then spread my will, remove Liang Fangping from all positions, and order Dali Temple to arrest him and bring him to Beijing for questioning. ”