Chapter Eighty-Six: The Truth Revealed

It can be seen that the Great Song Dynasty at that time, under the governance of several generations of kings of the Zhao family, had already been politically clear, and the monarchs and ministers were united. There are all kinds of signs that there is no possibility of returning to the imperial court. In desperation, he set his sights on the Khitan, which was the strongest in addition to the Song Dynasty. What he never expected was that the Khitan would be so short-lived. Soon after, the Khitan was destroyed by the newly emerging Jin state. So, this power-hungry guy came to the country of gold again.

The lord of the Jin State, who had long coveted the land of the Song Dynasty, saw Wang Jien and kept him at that time. However, the gold lord thought that when he used the army before, he had been hindered by the martial arts people of the Song Dynasty and suffered a big loss, so he agreed with Wang Jien: as long as he could subdue all the martial arts people of the Song Dynasty, the Jin State would immediately raise troops to the south; on the day of success, he would give Wang Jien all the land in the Guannai and make him the 'King of Guannei'; and sit on an equal footing with the emperor of the Song Dynasty. After some planning, as a result, a series of events such as the 'Beijing Martial Arts Conference' and the 'Six Major Factions' naturally followed.

"It turns out that many of these things are all done by this eunuch alone!" Zhao Weiming suddenly realized. After a pause, he asked repeatedly, "Has this matter been reported to Renzong, and what will be done with this thief?" Zhao Chengzong nodded and said, "Renzong has already noticed it, and he has sent someone to secretly investigate it earlier; now that all the truth is revealed, Renzong is furious, and immediately ordered it to be corrected and the Nine Clans be exterminated!" After listening to Zhao Chengzong's intermittent explanation of the case of the golden-faced man, seven or eight days had passed unconsciously.

In the past few days, he has lived in the spacious and magnificent palace marshal's mansion given by Renzong. Although the son Zhao Chengzong and his wife are extremely filial, and often have ministers from the DPRK and China come to visit. However, Zhao Weiming took into account the sensitive identity of his grandson, Taizu Disun, and in order to avoid idle affairs, he not only refused the visits and meetings of most of the courtiers, but also often instructed his son: "On weekdays, you only need to do the errands assigned by Renzong!" Although Zhao Chengzong readily agreed to his father every time, in this kind of life of limited brocade clothes and jade food, the free life time on Xiaguang Island always haunted Zhao Weiming's dreams.

'Father is about to be forty years old, right?' Zhao Chengzong asked coldly in his spare time that day. Zhao Weiming thought for a while, nodded hurriedly, and said, "Yes! It's rare that you are so busy with official business, and you can still remember your father's birthday, but how did you know my birthday?' Zhao Chengzong pretended to smile mysteriously, and said, "The child did not know about it from other places, but Renzong himself calculated it, and specially asked the child to come to you for verification. The emperor was full of opportunities and complicated official affairs, and he still remembered his birthday, Zhao Weiming was immediately struck by a great sense of happiness, and he was about to enter the palace to knock Xie Renzong.

But Zhao Chengzong stopped his father. He said, 'Renzong has been very sad about the matter of a group of robbers in Shandong for the past two days, if you really want to enter the palace, you still need to wait for Renzong to be relieved of this matter before going!' Asked the reason for Renzong's sentimentality, Zhao Chengzong immediately said something.

It turned out that there was a Yuncheng official named Song in Shandong at that time. Later, by chance, this person became the leader of a group of bandits who gathered in Liangshan, Shuibo, Shandong. Because all of them have unique skills and have the help of masters, they soon became the leading local Jianghu organization, attracting Jianghu people to vote one after another. In the past few years, more than 100,000 people have gathered. It has become a huge hidden danger for the imperial court. However, because its leader Song was born in a scholarly family, and he had done a mission in the court, although he ordered someone to play the banner of 'walking for the sky', he never forgot to serve the court, and he was in the lintel. After Renzong learned of this, he immediately sent important ministers of the imperial court to recruit him. 'Did they agree to be recruited?' Zhao Weiming couldn't help but interject. After seeing Zhao Chengzong nodded, Zhao Weiming continued to ask, "But do you know that my Great Song Dynasty is strong and the people are rich, but why are there so many people in the rivers and lakes who gather in the mountains and forests?" It is said that many of them have committed crimes before, and they have no choice but to join the gang. Zhao Chengzong responded. 'Then why do they commit crimes so easily?' Zhao Weiming asked one after another. Seeing Zhao Chengzong's dazed face, Zhao Weiming paused, and then said, "First, I have a great Song Dynasty and the people are rich, and the people have no worries about food and clothing, and they have nothing to do; second, these people are in the middle of their blood and strength, and they have learned a lot of skills; plus my Emperor Zhao of the Great Song Dynasty has always ruled the country with benevolence and filial piety, and every time there is a harem and a child, the birthday of the close relatives of the royal family, all of them will be amnesty to the world. Therefore, these Jianghu people are not only not afraid of committing crimes, but even if they commit crimes, they are not in a hurry to escape, but wait for the emperor's pardon. That's why there are so many people who flout the king's law and easily commit crimes!'

After speaking, Zhao Weiming, who felt a little off-topic, continued the topic just now and asked, 'What happened to a certain group of Liangshan and Song Dynasty after they were recruited by the imperial court? What happened to make the emperor so sentimental?' Listening to Zhao Weiming's repeated questions, Zhao Chengzong went on to say: 'After a certain group of Song people in Shuibo Liangshan was recruited, at that time, a group of strongmen headed by Fang Mou in the Jiangnan area gathered in the mountains and forests to fight against the imperial court. Unexpectedly, this Liangshan Song gang didn't think much about it, and immediately agreed to go to conquer a gang in the south of the Yangtze River. After a series of battles, Liangshan and his gang not only lost several battles in a row, but even lost more than half of the more than 100 main generals. Thinking that they ended up like this out of the desire to serve the court, how could Renzong not feel sentimental?"

"Renzong doesn't need to be sentimental, the outcome of this matter has long been doomed to heaven!" Zhao Weiming said. 'But what is the reason?' Hearing his father say this, Zhao Chengzong said curiously. Zhao Weiming thought for a while, and said slowly, "At first, the two gangs of people and horses both played the banner of 'walking for the sky', which shows that their ambitions are not small; plus they are both extremely powerful, even if they sweep the world, no matter which of them becomes the son of heaven, the final opponent must be the other side of the two gangs." Therefore, their ending was not done by the imperial court, but by the will of heaven. Therefore, Renzong does not need to be sentimental and blame himself in vain!' Zhao Weiming said in one breath. After listening, Zhao Chengzong, who was still confused, hurriedly asked, "Although my father's views are extremely high, I don't know what I mean?" Thou shalt only need to study a great deal and thou shalt understand the implications." Zhao Weiming said lightly.