As soon as this information was made public in the court, it immediately caused an uproar. Most of the speech officials launched a verbal and written attack on Shi Song's faction like chicken blood, and those who had anything to do with Shi Song did not dare to squeak. Others have shaken out the details, and there is no way to defend it, so I can't say that I used my own money to buy goods, and then made money to the imperial treasury. This is not an excuse, this is a contempt for the wisdom of the officials and officials of the DPRK and China, and treating others as fools.

What's even more troublesome is that this information was published in the bosom friend newspaper on the same day, except for the military aspect, the other contents are almost exactly the same as the content of the information in Zheng Qingzhi's hand. As soon as this newspaper came out, it was like a big stone thrown into the oil pot, and it was impossible to pay attention to it, and even the lively people on the side of the pot were blistered, and many well-known people stood up and accused Shi Song's faction of being a moth of the country in various ways.

Immediately after, an even greater panic broke out in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other places, with as many as 100 merchants gathering in front of the headquarters of the Straits Company, making their families queue up all night to apply for immigration. They want to leave their homeland with their families and go to live in the Jinhe Empire, because the actions of the imperial court are too disappointing to them, and this is Chiguoguo's competition with the people.

And it's not just a mental loss, if the imperial court really listened to the opinions of Shi Song's faction and banned the sea trade, then they wouldn't be able to survive, and the maritime merchants could still run away by boat, and they would have nowhere to run if they were businessmen. As a result, these things quickly spread through the newspapers to the coastal cities of the Southern Song Dynasty, causing the maritime merchants in Wenzhou, Taizhou, Mingzhou, and even Lin'an to become uneasy, and it is said that they were also planning a strike to send the strongest protest to the imperial court! Even if it is charged with rebellion. Nor can a sea ban be enforced.

In this way, it will be Emperor Lizong's turn to have a headache. If this matter is just an argument in the court. No matter who is right or wrong, it is still within his control. Even if Shi Song's faction loses in this round of struggle, he can still use the technique of moving the universe and make Shi Song's faction suffer too much blow. Exile and dismiss a few unlucky people, let this matter become a big and small matter, and then appease and appease Zheng Qingyi's faction, you can erase this matter. With these people of Shi Songzhi, Emperor Lizong does not have to be afraid of Zheng Qingzhi's power alone.

But now this mud work is not easy to do. If you forcibly favor Shi Song's faction, you may have to deduct the basin on your head in the end. The emperor's position is that the referee, and it is the referee who blows the black whistle, this work can only be carried out secretly, and the players on both sides understand that it doesn't matter, once the audience also sees it, this black whistle is not very easy to blow.

In the end, Emperor Lizong did not dare to continue to blow the black whistle, and when the imperial court wanted to go on the Northern Expedition, any practice that affected the process of the Northern Expedition would be branded as a traitor, let alone Shi Songzhi. Emperor Lizong himself did not dare to wear this big hat. So under this premise, Shi Songzhi and Zhao Kui and their faction were dealt a very severe blow. Exile of those who should be exiled, dismissal of those who should be dismissed.

Shi Songzhi was demoted to Qiongzhou as a general judge, and Zhao Kui was sent to the front line in Sichuan and became Wu Jue's subordinate. Don't look at the two of them are still officials, and their positions are not low, but those who understand can see at a glance that Shi Songzhi and Zhao Kui are finished. What is Qiongzhou? The territory of the Strait Company and the maritime merchants, it is strange that Shi Songzhi can feel better after he comes. Who is Wu Jue? The firm main battle faction, there are still many contradictions with Zhao Kui in leading the troops to fight, and he can't pee in a pot at all, and he is also an unlucky child when he arrives in Sichuan. The credit will definitely not be reaped, and a whole bunch of basins are waiting to be put on his head.

The matter has reversed this step, and it is still in Hong Tao's expectations, he is going to squeeze out those lords and factions in the Southern Song Dynasty court. Most of the reports of the bosom friend newspaper and the chaos in the coastal cities were secretly instructed and supported by the Ministry of Supervision, and the purpose was also to force the imperial court to be unable to calm things down.

But the series of changes that followed were a little beyond Hong Tao's imagination, and even made him a little overwhelmed. First of all, Wen Hao suddenly went north to Lin'an, and became a political adviser under the Zhongshu Sect of the Southern Song Dynasty, and more than a dozen backbones of the Bosom Friend Society who went with him were also personally received by Emperor Lizong and given different positions, all of which were substantive positions. In this way, the position originally held by Shi Song's faction has become the territory of the Bosom Friend Society's faction. Wen Hao went from being a pioneer who criticized and opposed the imperial court to a rising political star in the Southern Song Dynasty court in an instant.

In the Song Dynasty, the governor was a big official, and it was specially set up to disperse the power of the prime minister, which is almost the meaning of the deputy minister. Isn't the decentralization of the prime minister's power to disperse Zheng Qingzhi's power, so this position is more valued by the emperor than the left prime minister, and in some respects it is even greater than the prime minister's power. Before Hong Tao could react, Wen Hao took a group of court officials to the south and became the minister of the imperial court, specially sitting in Guangzhou to deal with the matter of the maritime strike.

"Your Majesty, your subordinates are guilty, you didn't get any news about this matter in advance, it's all your subordinates' fault. Afterwards, I arrested a backbone of the bosom friend club, and only then did I know that Wen Hao had always been in contact with the imperial court, and they used poetry to communicate with each other, and the subordinates couldn't understand it...... "After learning the news, Cixi ran back to Jinhe City as soon as possible, and after meeting Hong Tao, she began to review her work mistakes.

"I've always said it, don't take the people in the court for fools. They can't fight, but we have to call them masters when we play court politics. This trick is amazing, it's really a thousand pounds, and now they use our weapons against us. And in this way, Zheng Qingzhi has another strong enemy, and he can't spare too much energy to cooperate with Wen Nan in the court to force Emperor Lizong to agree to the Northern Expedition immediately, he has to find out the bottom of this Wen Hao before he dares to make a move. The Wen family is really talented, there are two cousins, one is the foreign minister of the empire, and the other is the vice minister of the Great Song Dynasty......" Hong Tao looked at the report in his hand, and the expression on his face was very rich. His brain is really not enough, those who play politics are human spirits, if he removes his crossing advantage, he can find a small county official and dump himself eight streets.

"But don't worry, there is a proverb in my hometown, which is called one force to ten times, and a miracle to be made! No matter how fancy and skillful they are in their political tactics, they will not be able to change the balance of power between the two countries. So they play theirs, we play ours, our strength is fists, there is no need to fight them in this aspect. It's like I quarreled with Wen Nan, and I used poetry to scold Wen Nan for not being the same for a night, so could I also use poetry to scold him? That's not a fool. I'll scold him with what I do best, and if I'm in a hurry, I can go up and beat him, press his mouth in the sand, and see if he can scold him! After sighing, Hong Tao changed his words and began to strategically despise the enemy again, and at the same time, Cixi slowly recovered from her anxiety. This is his responsibility, but he cannot be blamed entirely on him, and the work of the Ministry of Supervision is still worthy of recognition, and he is not afraid of mistakes, and he is afraid that he will not be able to sum up lessons and lessons from his mistakes.

"What Your Majesty said is, in fact, Your Majesty doesn't need to do anything, Wen Nan can't scold you......" Cixi fully understood the central idea of Hong Tao's words, and immediately got rid of her sad face.

"Your sycophant skills have regressed a bit...... Help me convey to Wen Nan, you don't have to carry any ideological baggage, no matter whether his negotiation partner is Zheng Qingzhi or Wen Hao, the principles of the empire will not change. The negotiation of maritime merchants from the Ministry of Commerce to find two graduates of the navigation school and maritime representatives to go together, I am afraid that the maritime merchants alone will not be able to deal with Wen Hao, do you know why? Seeing that Cixi started to pat again, it means that he has returned to normal, and Hong Tao can arrange the next step for him.

"Because it's not the student you taught since childhood, it's not thick enough. Wen Hao has several graduates around him who have been trained in the navigation school since childhood, and they are difficult to deal with. Cixi answered Hong Tao's question without thinking about it.

"Yes...... Remember, when dealing with the enemy, we must not be higher than their bottom line. They have thick skin, and we have to be thicker! If they are not human, then we must be even less human! There is no shame in this, for the sake of my own country, even if I am stripped naked and go to dance on the streets of Lin'an, if it can solve the problem, I will also go, this is the honor of being an imperial official! Only officials who are hated to death by the people of other countries are good officials of the empire! Hong Tao patted Cixi's shoulder, and his serious tone pulled Cixi's already low bottom line to a lower level.

As Hong Tao expected, after Wen Hao arrived in Guangzhou, he immediately started his three fires in a big way. This ambitious guy knew the maritime merchant community very well, and he was not too unfamiliar with the situation of the Jinhe Empire, and he was also a direct participant in the strike, and could even be said to be half organizer and half leader. At this time, his role is a bit like Song Gongming of Shuibo Liangshan, after being recruited by the imperial court, he immediately betrayed the original brothers cleanly, and at the same time let the imperial court understand how to deal with maritime merchants and how to divide and disintegrate this group.

The solution he came up with is called a tax cut! It is very Hong Tao's interest-oriented style, which is to use interests to attract maritime merchants to return. If a maritime merchant stops the strike and returns to the port to continue normal maritime trade activities, he can go to him and write a letter of guarantee, and then not only will the imperial court not be held accountable, but the city shipping department will also adopt preferential policies for these maritime merchants, to put it bluntly, the proportion of withdrawal will be reduced to one-twentieth. And this price code can also be scaled, if you can pull others to return to the imperial court, the extraction will continue to fall, if you pull back a few more maritime merchants, simply give your family tax exemption.

(To be continued.) )